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Our new sailing grounds at the top of Penobscot Bay
were imperfect, sadly.
We could put up with the scenery, the interesting and
pleasing sailing conditions, the lack of boat traffic, and
the deep waters that limited the lobster pots there.
But what was unacceptable was the fact that we needed two
charts just to go daysailing:
13309 (Penobscot River) to start, and then, if we
went far enough,
13305 (Penobscot Bay).
I know, I know. I'm outraged too, but don't get to
upset yet; your Congressman probably has more important
issues with which to deal, not that I don't appreciate your
willingness to write on my behalf.
I still use paper charts; the correct chart is always in the
cockpit even though I have a rudimentary 2001-era LCD
chartplotter. I just believe in having the real chart
on hand; plus, I love charts. As a result,
physically changing charts from time to time is par for the
course as one moves along the coast in any direction.
In this case, however, our local waters in and around Buck's
Harbor featured a hidden gremlin: the harbor is
located near the boundary of two charts, and within only a
few miles south of the harbor, near Pickering Island, one
requires another chart to continue. Since the islands
south of Pickering Island were well within normal daysailing
range, as were other nearby waters that weren't on the chart
containing Buck's Harbor, I found that during our first
season in these waters I'd often need to pull out another
chart so I could go that extra 1/2 mile...or else I wouldn't
get the chart and I'd feel uncomfortable, or simply turn the
boat in a different direction, even though in general the
waters were deep. But I don't like to sail without a
chart of the waters at hand. It just seems smart.
Neuroses aside, the two charts in question also happened to
be quite large, and covered areas far more vast than we
normally needed for a single daysail. And since the
most-used waters were naturally displayed right at the edges
of these charts, it was harder to hold the chart flat in the
cockpit, since I roll charts for storage and create a sort
of scroll when I unwrap them to view. But I digress.
With all these utter inconveniences in mind, I briefly
considered selling the boat entirely, but soon decided that
was too drastic. Instead, I decided to make up my own
little chart to satisfy my daysailing whims. It was
time to replace the charts I had anyway, so I took the two
old charts in question and cut out sections that covered the
grounds into which we might reasonably expect to venture
during a daysail, or even on a weekend jaunt.
Fortunately, the two charts happened to be at the same
scale, so it would be possible to conjoin the two.
Next, I needed something to which to secure the cut chart
pieces. It needed to be strong and waterproof (or at
least as water resistant as chart paper); an old chart would
have worked, but stupidly I'd balled up and disposed of the
cutoffs of the charts from which I'd just cut my little
sections. Browsing the shop, I found a roll of Tyvek
housewrap, which seemed an ideal choice: incredibly
tough, waterproof, yet supple enough to roll like a chart.
Perfect.
With spray adhesive, I mounted the two chart sections on the
Tyvek, taking care to line up the joint as accurately as
possible. To make this easier, I'd chosen to cut one
of the charts along a line of latitude, making a ready
reference point for alignment; a nearby longitude line
provided the other.
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