Reminds me of the Canadian bush pilot ...
Floatplane bush pilots often judge the weight of their load by the position of the waterline on the floats. Hence the famous, probably apocryphal, last words: "Looks like a good Beaver load to me!"
Bearing in mind that each float displaces a volume of water of at least the maximum AUW, you need to pay attention when the floats are half-submerged.