As with any pilotage you need a plan, fortunately we have many tools in our armoury when it comes to drawing up a pilotage plan: Large scale chartsChart plotter or other electronic aidsAlmanacPilot booksTidal stream atlasesNomad course notes (if you have taken one of our classroom courses or are a member of 'Club Nomad')Local knowledge (sometimes a...

Tidal Curves are very useful tools in our armoury and help us to navigate safely in waters of varying depths. As part of our morning boat preparation this is on our list of things to do before leaving. Portsmouth is the main standard port in The Solent so we have a Portsmouth Tidal Curve constructed every morning for reference. What do we need...

Pilotage - what is it ? There are numerous definitions, one I particularly like is - 'pilotage is the use of fixed visual references on the ground or sea by means of sight to guide oneself to a destination'. Certainly in the Solent and around much of the UK coastline there are numerous visual references wherever you may be, for these visual referen...