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Navigation & ECDIS

Where is the ship, and is the water ahead safe? That question is the whole of navigation, and the modern bridge answers it with ECDIS, satellite position, and electronic charts. These guides cover the systems and the seamanship behind them: chart setup, safety settings, route checking, position fixing, and passage planning.

21Articles
1Sub-topics
18Diagrams
Start herePosition Fixing Methods: How a Ship Knows Where It Is

A fix is only as good as the method that confirms it. The ways a ship fixes its position, from visual bearings to GNSS and the stars, and why you never trust one alone.

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21 ARTICLES
AIS Explained: What It Tells You, and What It Can’t

AIS hands you every ship's name, course, and intentions before they come into sight. The trouble is how much of it is typed in by hand, and how far to trust it.

8 minBuoys and Markers: How to Read the IALA Buoyage System

Learn how to identify and understand buoys and markers, including lateral marks, cardinal marks, danger marks, and navigation aids essential for safe seamanship.

11 minCommon 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.

8 minDead Reckoning vs GPS

They are not rivals. GPS gives where the ship is; dead reckoning gives where she should be. How the fix, DR, and estimated position fit, and why both still run today.

9 minECDIS 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.

6 minECDIS 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.

7 minECDIS Explained: What It Is and How It Works

The electronic chart has replaced the chart table as the heart of the modern bridge. Here is what ECDIS is, how it works, and how to make it the anti-grounding tool it was built to be.

12 minECDIS 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.

7 minECDIS 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.

10 minECDIS Route Planning Step by Step

A good route plan is thinking done in advance, so it does not have to be done at the wheel-over in the dark. Here is how to plan a passage on ECDIS — and run a route check that is actually honest.

9 minECDIS Safety Settings: Contour, Depth, and Height

ECDIS does not know what "safe" means for your ship until you tell it — and its default guess is dangerous. Here is how the safety contour, depth, and height settings really behave.

9 minENC 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.

6 minGeneric vs Type-Specific ECDIS Training

An officer can hold a valid ECDIS certificate and still be unfit to keep watch on the system in front of them. Here is why ECDIS training comes in two parts — and which one actually gets ships detained.

7 minGreat 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.

6 minIMO Model Course 1.27: ECDIS Training Explained

Generic ECDIS training has a name, and a catch. What IMO Model Course 1.27 covers, how it meets STCW, and why on its own it does not qualify you on your ship's ECDIS.

6 minPassage 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.

8 minPosition Fixing Methods: How a Ship Knows Where It IsCORE

A fix is only as good as the method that confirms it. The ways a ship fixes its position, from visual bearings to GNSS and the stars, and why you never trust one alone.

6 minRadar Basics

A working guide to marine radar: how it builds its picture, how to read motion and risk of collision from it, how to tune it, and where it goes blind.

9 minReading Nautical Charts: What a Chart Actually Tells You

A nautical chart is not a picture of the seabed but a conservative model of it. What soundings, drying heights, and datums mean, and why the sea is almost always deeper than the printed figure.

9 minS-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.

7 minVoyage 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.

6 min

Navigation & ECDIS

Where is the ship, and is the water ahead safe? That question is the whole of navigation, and the modern bridge answers it with ECDIS, satellite position, and electronic charts. These guides cover the systems and the seamanship behind them: chart setup, safety settings, route checking, position fixing, and passage planning.