The Mariner's Blog

Anyone who has traveled by sea or along a coastline has noticed that the ocean does not look the same everywhere. Open Atlantic waters off the cont...

A nautical chart is the single most important document aboard any vessel. Unlike a road map, which shows highways and intersections, a nautical cha...

Navigating a boat is nothing like driving a car. On the water, there are no road signs, no lane markings, and no pavement to follow. Fog, darkness,...

A good pair of marine binoculars is one of the most practical tools aboard any vessel. Whether identifying a distant buoy in haze, reading the name...

Every vessel floating on water has a measurement that directly indicates how safe that vessel is in its current loaded condition. Freeboard, the ve...

The Automatic Identification System (AIS) is one of the most important pieces of navigation equipment aboard any commercial vessel. AIS broadcasts ...

Fog can reduce visibility from miles to meters in a matter of minutes. Unlike a storm, which announces itself with wind and waves, fog arrives quie...

Every maritime zone on a nautical chart, from territorial waters to the high seas, exists because of a single international treaty. The United Nati...

A magnetic compass does not point to true north. Two separate errors, variation and deviation, pull the compass needle away from the direction sho...

Before GMDSS existed, a vessel in distress had to rely on a nearby ship monitoring the same radio frequency at the right moment. The Global Maritim...