Great Circle vs Rhumb Line: Which Route Is Shorter?
The straight line on your chart is rarely the shortest way there. Why the great circle beats the rhumb line over long distances, why it looks like a detour, and when to use each.
Edward Caine
Voyage Planning Checklist: The Four Stages, Berth to Berth
A voyage plan is the thinking you do before the ship moves. A practical, berth-to-berth checklist across the four stages, so nothing on the passage becomes a surprise.
ECDIS Chart Updating: Keeping ENCs Current
Electronic charts correct themselves from weekly data, which makes the lapses quiet and dangerous. How ENC updating really works, where it falls short, and what you must still do by hand.
S-57, S-63, and S-101: ECDIS Chart Standards Explained
S-57, S-52, S-63, and now S-100 and S-101: the standards behind every ENC, what each one actually does, and how the shift to S-100 will change the picture on your screen.
Common ECDIS Errors: The Mistakes That Ground Ships
An ECDIS rarely fails by breaking; it fails quietly. The settings, habits, and blind spots behind real groundings, and the simple discipline that prevents them.
ECDIS Manufacturers: The Major Makers Explained
Every ECDIS meets the same standard, yet no two makers build the same bridge. The major manufacturers you meet at sea, and why that difference makes training type-specific.
ECDIS Carriage Requirements: SOLAS Rules Explained
Having an ECDIS on the bridge is not the same as being compliant. The SOLAS fitting timetable, the backup options, the training, and what makes it your legal charts.
ENC vs RNC: Vector and Raster Charts Explained
The two electronic charts can look alike but behave nothing alike. What separates an ENC from an RNC, and why the difference decides what your ECDIS can actually do.
ECDIS Route Monitoring and Alarms
An ECDIS alarm is only as good as the settings behind it. How the safety contour, the look-ahead cone, and cross-track limits keep the watch off the ground.
Passage 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. Here are the four stages that turn a passage into decisions already taken.