Keeping Your Charts Current
can then read through the Local Notice and find any changes which might affect you. Once the Notice is downloaded it will look similar to the document that follows.
Department of Transportation - U.S. Coast Guard LOCAL NOTICE TO MARINERS
JUNE WEEKLY SUPPLEMENT
NOTICE NUMBER 26-98
June 30,1998
Issued by: Commander, Seventh Coast Guard District
Brickell Plaza, Federal Building
909 S.E. 1st Avenue, Miami, Florida 33131-3050
Telephone (305) 536-5621 (Office hours 7:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m., M-F)
BROADCAST NOTICE TO MARINERS
Navigation information having been of immediate concern to the Mariner, and promulgated by the following broadcasts, has been incorporated in this notice when still effective:
NOTES: (1) Unless otherwise indicated, missing and destroyed structures are presumed to be in the immediate vicinity mariners should proceed with caution. A dark vertical line in the left margin indicates new information.
RELOCATE Pine Is Snd Daybeacon "2A" from
(26°30'15.784'N, 82°1'46.792'W) to 26°30'16.1"N 082°01'46.5"W
Pine Is Snd Daybeacon "4" from
(26°30'5.3'N, 82°2'8.4'W) to 26°30'05.1"N 082°02'06.7"W
Pine Is Snd Daybeacon "5" from
(26°29'51.33'N, 82°2'26.375'W) to 26°29'52.1"N 082°02'26.5"W
The Local Notice to Mariners consists of a Monthly Edition and Weekly Supplementals. The Monthly Edition should be maintained as a reference. Recurring information is published only once a month.
Obviously, to really update our chart we would have to find all notices related to the area from August of 1995 when the chart was published. This is possible, but perhaps not practical. If I were making the trip, I might do a cursory search to see what I could find and make those corrections but then when I arrived at the unfamiliar area I would try to radio for local information. Usually you can raise a marina or a towing service that will be happy to tell you of any special circumstances that might not show on your chart.
If you often operate in a particular area you should subscribe to, or visit, the Local Notice to Mariners page often to keep your personal charts up to date.