HOW TO NAVIGATE OVERFALLS

Overfalls are areas of broken or rougher water caused by tidal currents flowing past or over geographic features.

This may be an obvious visible feature, such as a protruding headland or an invisible one such as sudden change of depth in the seabed, especially if that area coincides with a headland. Overfalls can vary dramatically depending on the strength and direction of the wind and tide.

Most overfalls are well marked and easy to see on printed charts but can be hard to spot on electronic charts, particularly on smaller screens or when zoomed out to a smaller scale. The good news is that overfalls tend to be localised to one specific area and some can be avoided altogether by detouring around them.

If you do need to navigate through them, the general principle is to look further ahead and reduce your speed to one at which you can steer around the worst parts.