Eyeball pilotage skills for coast crawling

Getting close in to the coast to explore a tidal channel or fi nd a snug anchorage is rewarding, but close attention must be paid to the visual clues, explains Ken Endean

- Ken Endean

The term ‘eyeball pilotage’ is generally used to describe the process of conning a boat by direct visual clues, where charted information is incomplete or suspect. Those clues may be above or below the water and Rachel Sprott, in her article ‘Navigate any coast’ (YM July 2019), described the time-honoured method for crossing coral reefs, where a sandy bottom will look darker in the deeper areas, particularly when observed down-sun or through polarised glasses. In our home waters, around the British Isles and Atlantic France, that technique can be equally valid but needs to take account of local conditions.

Photo 1 was taken at Les Écrehou, the small group of islets and rocks to the north east of Jersey. Sailors from Jersey and Normandy usually arrive at around half ebb, with the tide slightly higher than in the photo. Some of them, approaching from the left of the picture, like to anchor in the Pool, the mooring area at the top right, and the most popular entry route is via the gully between the two rocks in the middle. Even when the reef is covered, at a greater height of tide, the submerged gully offers two visual clues: both the deepest channel and the weed-covered rocks look darker than the surrounding sand, although they convey different messages.

DEEP SAND