T&T: Aids to Navigation

[LRZeitlin@aol.com]

I think we all put too much faith in charts, ATONs, and their electric 
analogs.   For most boaters on the TWL, removal of a few ATONs would have a minor 
impact on their boating activities.

On the East Coast every strong storm rearranges the coastline. Inlets open 
and close. Waterways shoal up. Land contours change. Buoys move. Inshore 
charting, the major reason most recreational boaters use charts, is a low priority 
for NOAA. Some errors in land contours and hazards to navigation have gone 
unchanged for decades. Electronic charts simply preserve this incorrect information 
in digitized form.

One of many examples. On the very heavily traveled Hudson River, about 40 
miles north of NYC, Croton Point divides Tappan Zee from Haverstraw Bay. This is 
a favorite cruising area and hundreds of boats converge on it every major 
summer holiday. Just off the northern tip
of the point the chart shows a hazard to navigation, Potato Rock, a granite
spur which projects out of the river at low tide and will tear the bottom out 
of
any boat which crosses it at any tide. Every paper chart, official (NOAA, 
NYS) and
commercial (Richardson's, etc.), shows it.   Electronic BSB chart 12343_1 
shows it as well.

But Potato Rock has not existed for at least 20 years. It was blasted into
rubble by the USCG or the Corps of Engineers (I'm not sure who lit the fuze)
after it tore the bottom out of a barge bringing landfill to Croton Point. 
Still,
pleasure boats and commercial craft veer around it. After all, it's on the 
latest chart.

I have several friends who are New York Harbor and Hudson River pilots. They
keep personal chart logs showing contemporary changes in the waterway. Do 
they
complain about the glacial rate of updating of official charts? Not at all.
It's what keeps them employed.

The moral: Nothing beats your eyes and an accurate depthfinder when 
approaching unfamiliar shores. Charts are just a first approximation of the waters 
surrounding your boat.

Larry Z 


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