Everything the watch runs on, explained properly.
An independent reference for deck officers and cadets. ECDIS and chart work, the COLREGs, stability and safety, watchkeeping and the career behind the rank. Written for the watch, open to all aboard.
Find your bearing.
Seven areas covering the deck side of the job, from the chart table to the certificate of competency.
Navigation & ECDIS
ECDIS and electronic charts, position fixing, route checking, and passage planning.
Open areaRules & Regulations
The COLREGs and right of way, SOLAS, MARPOL, STCW, and port and flag state control.
Open areaSeamanship & Watchkeeping
Keeping a proper lookout, the watch handover, anchoring, mooring, and ship handling.
Open areaShips & Stability
Stability and the metacentric height, hydrostatics, draft and trim, cargo and construction.
Open areaSafety & Survival at Sea
Lifesaving appliances, firefighting, GMDSS and distress, abandon ship, and the drills behind them.
Open areaLife & Career at Sea
Certificates of competency, sea time, cadetships, contracts, rotations, and promotion.
Open areaCornerstone guides.
The long-form pieces worth reading first, whatever your rank.
ECDIS Explained: What It Is and How It Works
The electronic chart has replaced the chart table as the heart of the modern bridge. What ECDIS is, how it works, and how to make it the anti-grounding tool it was built to be.
Read the guidePassage Planning: The Four Stages
A voyage that ends badly rarely goes wrong at sea. It goes wrong days earlier, in a plan never properly made. The four stages that turn a passage into decisions already taken.
Read the guideCOLREGS Basics: The Rules of the Road at Sea
Most collisions are not accidents of fate but failures to apply rules every officer should know cold. Meeting, crossing, overtaking, lights, shapes, and signals, made practical.
Read the guide300+ terms. One page. Fully searchable.
Every term, abbreviation, and bit of bridge shorthand worth knowing, defined in plain language and filterable by topic. Built to be the page you keep open on watch.