Into the blue

Navigational apps are great as they make life so much easier and safer, but they are not without their pitfalls, as I discovered.

I sail an International Folkboat on the Schlei, a somewhat narrow and, in places, shallow fjord in northern Germany. Soon I came to appreciate the function of my app that allows me to set the colour of the water depending on its depth.

All I had to do was to take the 4ft draught of my beloved Santa Maria, add a small safety allowance and set my app to show all depth of less than 5ft in blue and the deeper water in white. As long as I kept well enough away from the blue parts on the chart, I would not run aground.

Having gained something of an expert navigator status after some seasons, my brother-in-law asked me to be his navigator on his boat during a trip on the Schlei.

Of course, I agreed. Simple enough to save him from grounding, I thought. To my utter surprise, the boat came to a sudden stop after only a few miles. Despite us being well outside the charted blue parts.

Only then did I realise that his Nicholson 35 had a draught of 5.5ft. I guess even the fanciest app doesn’t dispense you from using your good old brain.