Cruising Sailors Forum Archive

Most (or many) plotters allow you to manually adjust the chart datum but . . .

The adjustment for one chart can/will be different as you move onto the next chart, and since many of the plotters change charts "seamlessly" today you may not realize you have changed.

In any case, this is really not a big problem today. Mexico is a big exception (bad) but most of the world has now had their charts adjusted. Even French Polynesia, which used to be the worst when we started cruising has all been adjusted and now has 4' accuracy. The published Chilean charts are bad but that is done intentionally, to confuse the invading Argentines, the Chilean navy has on board their own ships perfect charts.

So, you can do it with most plotters, but I would not worry about it. We have done quite a bit of night navigation in places where the charts have been off and keeping an eye outside (you can see quite a bit with a decent moon) and an eye on the radar and you are all set.

Even when the charts are 'accurate' you should not really believe them at night, because someone may have built a new break wall, or a sand bar may have moved in a hurricane, etc.

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