Charts for Tehini #138s voyage.

[Anthony McLeod]

Howdy one an' all. Does anyone have redundant paper charts of the Canaries, west and east coasts of Africa, South Africa, Indian ocean, and pacific islands. Also the West Indies as we may go there. My collection of charts. mostly gathered from boat jumbles in the UK, is unbelievably pathetic. I built a large chart storage space under the chart table of my Tehini but at the moment it is full of other junk with an embarassingly small amount of space devoted to charts. My anorexic bamk account passed away some time ago, so cheap and cheerful would do nicely.  Email replies to [e-mail]

Many thanks

Anthony McLeod

[Galway Bay]

Tony - the UK seems to be the most expensive place in the world to get charts.

A couple of suggestions and pardon me if you know all this already - I downloaded Open CPN [ free ] mostly because  of a dicsussion here [ thank you wakatatea ] this is awesome. I got a full set of UK + Irl charts [ 800+ ] on DVD for 30e from "visit my harbour" again everything I needed - super. GPS mouse 20e. This stuff is so good it almost has a "too good to be true" feel about it. Lots of nav. tools etc. included also runs in Google earth etc...all easy to use - tutorial on youtube....

NOAA charts downloads are free for the world [the UK is not part of the world apparently].

Paper back-up is prudent. I have not used these people yet but there are lots of posts on the net. from cruisers using charts from Bellingham Charts try googling them or www.tidesend.com they have NOAA and others for a couple of dollars each. I have found on the net. cruising logs of voyages using black and white prints at 2/3 size from these printers as back-up.

Fair Winds and Well Done it is always great to hear of a successful launch.

PS That link needs to be in italics www. tidesend.com

[Anthony McLeod]

Thanks for your reply Galway Bay. I did not know about this stuff to download. I shall investigate asap. Thanks again. Tony

[paul anderson]

What he said.

[Galway Bay]

Tony you are welcome. I got a lot from this site [including a lesson in good manners - Ouch] it is nice to maybe give back.

You are probably away googling like mad now but for anyone wondering what this is all about --

Open CPN is a navigation [FREE] program that reads and stores downloaded charts in various formats. These charts are in turn mostly FREE. Included are tools for creating / storing routes etc..Receives GPS position from built-in receiver in laptop or plug-in mouse also shows Ais pos. etc..Runs WITHOUT internet connection. No 'phone bill no nothin' FREE. See what I mean by "almost too good to be true" ?? This is no mickey-mouse program even the NOAA carry a link.

The latest version is even BETTER than the tutorials / simpler to load charts etc... All you need to do is check where your computer stored the downloaded charts and click on the relevant box in the dialogue box that opens. Same with the GPS mouse - just watch where it downloads it's install program and click in the relevant box in CPN.

UK and IRL. charts have special problems in terms of access. H.M. enforce copyright. "Visit My Harbour" legally by arrangement sell in various forms UK charts. 30/60euro or so will get you everything you need. And these are printable provided ONLY that you do not sell-on to a third party [and who is going to police that ?? ] Again the new version is ahead of the tutorials - it automatically loads chart folios instead of individual charts and chooses the appropriate one as you zoom in / out. Available as DVD or Dongle so interchangable between various devices/laptop etc.. Tidal stream overlays available for some products. Will run as an overlay on Google Earth but so far I have only managed to do this with an internet connection.

Google Earth for an area can be opened and stored when you have an internet connection and opened later when you have none. GPS position can be overlaid on it.

G. Earth can be overlaid on your chart on CPN ' tho I have not yet progressed this far.  Check out Wakatatea's page/discussions for an example.

Bellingham printers are just that - printers. They will print from any non-copyright source at very good prices. Man in charge [Jon] is himself a sailor and has developed the idea of printing charts cheaply in black 'n white at 2/3 scale as back-up for voyagers who rely primarily on e-nav..I have not seen them myself but is seems he has many happy customers. Would not take a genius to go over the land contour with a green marker / 10m line with blue etc..

So UK charts - 30e -  NOAA free - GPS 20e - Back-up paper charts 5usd ea - Solar panel to keep the laptop going 50e -

All in all I would not like to be trying to make my living selling chartplotters.

Wish I was free to leave with you...any chance you might wait a couple of years ?? HaHaHa !!!

 

[Galway Bay]

EDIT Missed my "edit" window so a nerdy point or two -

Open CPN does not store charts these are in your laptop or external device it just accesses and reads them.

Black/white charts are at 2/3 SIZE not SCALE otherwise a chart of the N Atlantic would be over 1000 miles wide ......

[Anthony Curtis Collison]

I can't help you with charts per say have you tried aircraft charts? Also if you use a laptop computer buy the National Geographiic map of the world for your pc and you can use it like a plotter,but look for what charts you can to be safe, and don't be afraid to ask other boaters when you are sailing you can learn alot that way

[Alan Gallaugher]

A friend of mine found a torrent file containing max sea and charts for the whole world. So basically a chart plotter and charts for free. It worked great.
Navionics charts run on the iPad are another cheap and very user friendly option. I've used the iPad many times in preference to a dedicated furuno chart plotter as it was easier to use and the pan and zoom functions were much quicker. People say you can't use the iPad as a dedicated chart plotter, why not, you can make it waterproof and it has a GPS just like a chart plotter