2-year warranty
Get it first, pay later
Over 250,000 happy customers
Certified canoe center
A guide by Olle Persson, shared by Långholmen Kajak – the Swedish part of Northkayak.
Navigation means finding your way on the water in a controlled way – knowing where you are and where you are going. In familiar waters this is rarely a problem, but as soon as you head somewhere new, navigation becomes an important skill. You need a map, and preferably a compass. A GPS or phone can help, but it is sensitive to water and depends on batteries, so most experienced paddlers see it as a supplement. A map and compass always work.
In good weather it is often enough to follow your progress on the map so you always know where you are. But when you cross a large bay, or approach an archipelago from the open sea, you often see nothing but a featureless strip of land ahead. What looks simple from the map's bird's-eye view is much harder at water level – it can be almost impossible to pick out individual islands, narrow sounds and bays. With a map and compass you can still hold the right course. And if fog rolls in – common in spring and autumn, when the difference between water and air temperature is large – you quickly lose your sense of direction without a compass.
Along the coast and on large lakes you can choose between two types of map. Nautical charts give very good information about the water: buoys, beacons, lighthouses and shipping lanes are clearly marked. The land is hardly shown at all, apart from prominent landmarks such as high hills or towers that are visible from the sea. As a kayaker you should avoid the shipping lanes as much as possible in the boating season, because of the risk of collision and steep wake – but you can usually see where they run from the boat traffic anyway.
Topographic maps show both water and land. Shipping lanes and some lighthouses are marked, though less clearly than on a chart. In return, the land is shown in much more detail: elevation, buildings, larger jetties, steep shores and forest. Island silhouettes are easy to read because all differences in height are shown. Since you almost always have land in sight from a kayak, I prefer the topographic map – but opinions differ. In a group, you can bring both.
In Sweden, the 1:50,000 terrain map (the "green map") is the most useful, with plenty of detail. The 1:100,000 road map (the "blue map") shows less but can be enough along coasts with few islands, such as eastern Skåne, Blekinge, southern Småland and the Halland coast. Nautical charts come in several scales, from small-scale overview and coastal charts to detailed archipelago charts at 1:50,000. Leisure-boat chart folders contain useful information but are unwieldy in a kayak.
Whichever map you choose, keep it in front of you on the foredeck in a waterproof map case clipped to the deck lines. The slightest gust can otherwise blow the map – case and all – away.
A loose handheld compass kept within reach of the cockpit is often enough – tie it to a deck line with a cord so you cannot drop it. Many paddlers also have a fixed compass mounted on the foredeck, where it must be easy to read from the seat. Use the handheld compass to take a bearing on the map, note the number of degrees and then keep the deck compass on that number as you paddle. To avoid staring at the compass, pick a landmark on the shore in your direction of travel and paddle towards it. This also makes it easier to keep your balance in wind. A deck compass makes the whole procedure simpler, gives extra security in fog and poor weather, and shows straight away if a wind shift is pushing you off course – without having to stop paddling.
Practise on land first, so you can do it quickly when you are sitting in the kayak with other things on your mind. A baseplate compass has two parts: a transparent baseplate with a direction-of-travel arrow and parallel lines, and a rotating compass housing.
Deck lines to clip your map case to come standard on a sea kayak, and a dry bag keeps your phone and spare map dry.
Text: Olle Persson
