Charting the Way Forward Mystery Cache

NOTE: This cache is 1 of 16 associated with the Ol' Salty Dog's Maritime Mixer cache series.

Find your way to the physical cache container at the coordinates revealed by solving the puzzle below. In the physical cache container, attached to the log, you will find a "puzzle piece" that will get you one step closer to finding Ol' Salty Dog's Maritime Mixer.

A nautical chart is a graphic representation of a sea area and adjacent coastal regions. Depending on the scale of the chart, it may show depths of water and heights of land (topographic map), natural features of the seabed, details of the coastline, navigational hazards, locations of natural and human-made aids to navigation, information on tides and currents, local details of the Earth's magnetic field, and human-made structures such as harbours, buildings and bridges. Nautical charts are essential tools for marine navigation and many countries require vessels, especially commercial ships, to carry them. Nautical charting may take the form of charts printed on paper or computerized electronic navigational charts. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Office of Coast Survey is the nation's chartmaker, with over a thousand charts covering 95,000 miles of shoreline and 3.4 million square nautical miles of waters within the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone.

In 1807, President Thomas Jefferson signed "An Act to provide for surveying the coasts of the United States" but the effort experienced some growing pains in the early years. An early employee went to England to collect scientific instruments but was unable to return through the duration of the War of 1812. After finally returning, he started work on a survey of New York Harbor in 1817, but Congress stepped in to suspend the work because of tensions between civilian and military control of the agency. After several years under the control of the Department of the Navy, the civilian U.S. Coast Survey was established in 1832. Coast Survey has been the nation's chartmaker ever since.

The agency's professionals have led scientific and engineering activities through the decades. In 1926, they started production of aeronautical charts to meet the requirements of the new air transportation age. During the height of the Great Depression, Coast and Geodetic Survey (C&GS) organized surveying parties and field offices that employed over 10,000 people, including many out-of-work engineers. In World War II, C&GS sent over 1000 civilian members and more than half of its commissioned officers to the military services. President Richard Nixon formed NOAA in 1970, bringing C&GS into the new scientific agency.

Every chart produced by NOAA has a chart number designation. For example, the chart of Tampa Bay, Florida is Chart No. 11416 (background image for this page). Chart No. 1, first issued in 1948, which provides mariners a standard guide for understanding the symbols, abbreviations, and terms used on paper nautical charts, is actually more like a book than a chart.

Chart No. 1 presents the symbology used for marine navigation and is divided into 19 sections of symbols that are grouped by similar features such as lights, landmarks, nature of the seabed, and offshore installations. Within each section, each symbol shown has its own schematic layout. Column 1 indicates the symbol number. This number together with the section letter which appears at the top of each page, constitutes a unique identifier for each symbol, such as C1 for the "Coastline, surveyed" symbol (shown at the bottom of this page). Column 2 shows the international (INT) symbol specified by regulations and used by many countries around the world, including the United States. Column 3 provides a description of the symbol, term, or abbreviation.

Locate a copy of Chart No. 1 and utilize your sleuthing skills to identify the symbol number for each of the symbols and descriptions listed below. The last digit of the symbol number (annotated as A through H) will provide the needed number for each missing decimal minute digit of this puzzle cache's coordinates.

	#A			Sunken wreck, not dangerous to surface navigation
	#B			Coral reef, which covers and uncovers
	#C			Rock which covers and uncovers
	#D			Articulated light, buoyant beacon, resilient beacon
	#E			Cliffs, Steep coast
	#F			Cemetery
	#G			Compass rose, normal pattern
	#H			Wreck, hull never covers