Colorful Casco Bay

For a number of years, we have had the computer view of our website framed with a repeating wallpaper pattern of the Puerto Rico area.  It looked pretty, but being a repeating pattern, it was not representative of the work we do. We take an image from a nautical chart and enlarge it to custom fit a client's wall. Period. 

Now we can change colors, customize the chart to fit the client's needs, and even add images to the chart in order to personalize it better, but it is a mural we design, not repeating-pattern wallpaper.

So this week, we made a change. We used NOAA's Casco Bay chart to frame our computer-view website.  If you are reading this on a smartphone or a tablet, you will not see this view. Open this page on a computer to see what we mean. Here is what you would see on your computer:

Casco Bay is unique on east-coast charts as it has a lot of bright-green ocean areas amid some skinny islands with a southwest - northeast orientation. This is a very colorful chart and fun to use for a mural.

But what does the bright green signify?

The sage-green areas are tidal flats meaning that at low tide, they appear as land or mud, but at high tide, they appear like navigable water. Water yes, navigable no,

You can see an example of this color in the illustration above, extreme top-left corner. The bright green is below that on both sides of the illustration.

The bright green in the Casco Chart appears in ocean water that should normally be white on the chart, meaning more than 60 feet deep. (Shallow areas less than 60 feet are colored blue.)

So why isn't the ocean background white?

The Answer

Referring to "Nautical Chart Symbols, Abbreviations and Terms," published by NOAA and the Department of Defense, provides the answer.

In the section on "Depths" it illustrates the green coloring with this explanation: "Swept area, not adequately sounded (shown by purple or green tint).

Thus, while the green area provides a cautionary bit of advice to mariners, it looks marvelous in a mural -- from a decorator's perspective!

We are happy to host Casco, Chart number 13290 on our Nautical Chart Wallpaper Website.  

Don't you think it would look great on your wall? Give us a call and we will make it happen!