United States Coast Pilot (volume 1 through 9)

The United States Coast Pilot is a series of 9 nautical books that cover a wide variety of information important to navigators of U.S. coastal and intercoastal waters, and the waters of the Great Lakes. Most of this information cannot be shown graphically on the standard nautical charts and is not readily available elsewhere. The subjects of the Coast Pilot include, but are not limited to, channel descriptions, anchorages, bridge and cable clearances, currents, tide and water levels, prominent features, pilotage, towage, weather, ice conditions, wharf descriptions, dangers, routes, traffic separation schemes, small-craft facilities and federal regulations applicable to navigations.

Throughout the history of the modern maritime community, sailing directions have played an integral role in ensuring safe and efficient navigation. The United States Coast Pilot, our national sailing directions consists of a series of nautical publications that cover a variety of information important to navigators of coastal and intercoastal waters, including the Great Lakes. Issued in nine volumes they contain vital supplemental information that is difficult or impossible to portray on a nautical chart.

1525

All Coast Pilot volumes are updated weekly and available online at "http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/nsd/cpdownload.htm" with published corrections throughout the year. Each volumes (books) has its own edition and publication date. Refer to the Distribution Section for links to a specific book. Mariners and others are urged to report promptly to the National Ocean Service through the Nautical Inquiry/Discrepancy Reporting System at http://ocsdata.ncd.noaa.gov/idrs/discrepancy.aspx any errors, omissions, or any conditions found to differ from or to be additional to those published in the Coast Pilot or shown on the charts in order that they may be fully investigated and proper corrections made.

The Coast Pilot was first published as a piloting guide by the Blunt family in 1796. A partnership between the Blunt family and the United States Coast Survey began in the 1830's. lasting until 1867 when the United States bought the publishing rights to the Coast Pilot, since then the United States Coast Pilot has been a federal publication.

The newest edition of a Coast Pilot automatically cancels out previous versions of the Coast Pilot. Weekly updates to the Coast Pilot are available at http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/nsd/cpdownload.htm, and through the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency's Notices to Mariners. To legally meet carriage requirements a Coast Pilot must contain the amendments cut and pasted into the appropriate sections.

The newest edition automatically cancels out any previous version of a book.

Amendments to the Coast Pilot are availabel online at http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/nsd/cpdownload.htm, and through the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency's Notices to Mariner.

An up-to-date Coast Pilot, as defined by law, includes the book and all amendments cut and pasted into the appropriate sections.

The Coast Pilot supplements the navigational information shown on charts. Mariners and others are urged to report promptly to the National Ocean Service errors, omissions, or any conditions found to differ from or to be additional to those published in the Coast Pilot or shown on the charts in order that they may be fully investigated and proper corrections made.

The geographic position represents the most accurate position available found in documents received by NOS. Cautions are provided, as appropriate, to describe errors due to instrument type.Information received by NOS from various sources concerning depths, dangers, currents, facilities, and other subjects, which has not been verified by Government surveys and inspections, is often included in the Coast Pilot; such unverified information is qualified as "reported," and should be regarded with caution.

Depth is the vertical distance from the chart datum to the bottom and is expressed in the same units as soundings on the applicable chart.Controlling depth of a channel is the least depth within the limits of the channel; it restricts the safe use of the channel to drafts of less than that depth.Federal project depth is the design dredging depth of a channel constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; the project depth may or may not be the goal of maintenance dredging after completion of the channel, and, for this reason, project depth must not be confused with controlling depth.Depths along side wharves usually have been reported by owners and/or operators of the waterfront facilities, and have not been verified by Government surveys; since these depths may be subject to change, local authorities should be consulted for the latest controlling depths.

Each volume of the Coast Pilot is published on an annual basis with revisions and updates.

Amendments to individual volumes are available online at

"http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/nsd/cpdownload.htm", and through the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency's Notices to Mariners.

In certain cases, items are flagged with advisories when more information is required from local officials in order to conduct safe navigation.

This is often observed when depths are measured by local operators of waterfront facilities or annual tidal predictions issued by NOS provide insufficient resolution to determine under-keel-clearance.

The Coast Pilot is complete, at time of publication, however the information covers a dynamically changing environment and it is the responsibility of the user to file Coast Pilot Reports when they find errors, omissions, or any conditions found to differ from or to be additional to those published in the Coast Pilot.

Filing reports allows the information to be fully investigated and proper corrections made as appropriate.

The Coast Pilot supplements the navigational information shown on nautical charts.

It is imperative to recognize that when an abbreviation, or policy changes, it does not require that all preexisting data in the Coast Pilots change.

Therefore, there are inconsistencies in the Coast Pilots depending on policy at the time the feature was applied or updated.