As I have been sailing the more remote areas of the world, it has become glaringly obvious just how inaccurate both my paper and electronic charts are. Despite having the most up-to-date versions available, these charts are still based on scant surveys carried out many years ago and these Countries have neither the budget or the inclination to correct the anomalies. It is only on the routes used by the commercial fleets that the data has been updated and can just about be relied upon.

 It is here that technology has come to the rescue as I am able to use satellite imagery that I have cached when I have been able to get a decent internet connection and use it later when offline. This requires a bit more forward planning, but the added confidence it gives when heading into reef fringed lagoons is priceless. 

This is my route into a typical anchorage as shown on my onboard chart plotter. As you can see it has me travelling over the green (drying reef) and the yellow (land!) to my eventual destination.

This is the data I stored from the satellite imagery on my iPad, with the same route superimposed on it, and I’m sure you can appreciate that I was a lot more comfortable with this additional information to attempt the lagoon entry.

At the end of the day though, you can only really rely on the MK1 Eyeball and need to proceed very slowly and with extreme caution when anywhere near a landfall.