Most groundings don't happen in a storm. They happen in the afternoon, in good weather, to a skipper who trusted the chart from memory instead of the soundings in front of them.

Read the numbers, not the color

Blue water on a chart is a suggestion. The numbers are the truth. A 1.4 m sounding at mean lower low water means your keel clears — barely — and only at the exact moment of high water.

The bar, honestly

Our entrance bar shifts every winter. We survey it twice a season and push the soundings to the berth map the same day. If the chart says 1.6 m over the bar, cross at high water or not at all.

One habit

Read the tide before you cast off, read the soundings before you commit, and never trust a depth you can't date. That's the whole discipline.