We have a guest Mindbender from Dana Dupar who wants to find out what symbols on her chart stand for.
“I have a question for Mindbender, as I don’t know the answer but would like one. The symbols are three crosses which show on my Memory-Map navigation app. One has no additions, one has little boxes in each quadrant (circled) and one has dashes off each arm of the cross. I looked at the NOAA US Chart No. 1, but could not find it listed. This is from an electronic version of a NOAA chart, 18649 San Francisco Entrance. Thanks for your help.”
Send your answer to cruisingcompass@bwsailing.com. The winner, selected randomly from correct answers, will receive a Blue Water Sailing hat.
Congratulations to Chuck Emerich who correctly identified the dog watch. In marine or naval terminology, it is a watch, a period of work duty or a work shift, between 16:00 and 20:00 (4 pm and 8 pm). This period is split into two, with the ‘first’ dog watch from 16:00 to 18:00 (4 pm to 6 pm) and the ‘last’ dog watch from 18:00 to 20:00 (6 pm to 8 pm). Each of these watches is half the length of a standard watch.