Some of you probably know that in Florida we used SeaClear on the ship's computer to do all of our navigation with and loved it. It was connect always also to a handheld Garmin in the cockpit with the day's waypoints downloaded to it. I like SeaClear but development on it is kind of dead so I'll keep it on the computer but I'm switch to OpenCPN as a lot of things are being added to it all the time and it is also free and uses all the free NOAA charts.
One of the additions a while back was AIS input so you can see AIS equipped boats on the screen if you have an AIS receiver (I do). Another thing that has been there for a while that I never tried is that you can overlay a Google Earth image on the chart of your current position and drag and size it to whatever size you want.
Above I moved to a favorite key in Florida's 10,000 Islands and you can see that OpenCPN also moved Google Earth there. This is really nice for seeing features like the nice beaches there that you can't see on a NOAA chart. You can zoom the Google Earth image in or out or move it but if you do nothing as the boat moves or if you move the chart OpenCPM will move Google Earth along with you.
Now you do have to be connected to the internet for this to work. I bought a Walmart mobile Trackphone Hotspot to use on the road and on the boat so a lot of places if I want to connect this should work but wouldn't work at that location in the 10,000 Islands as there is no cell service there. What OpenCPN does allow you to do is go to a location when you do have internet and then save a screen shot of that location to be viewed later.
I think I'm really going to like this as you can check out anchorages and such before arriving at them to see if they are remote or maybe in someone's front yard and it will be great in just being able to see a place before you get there,
Sumner
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]============================
Our Endeavour 37
Our MacGregor 26-S Pages
Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida
Mac-Venture Links[/FONT]
One of the additions a while back was AIS input so you can see AIS equipped boats on the screen if you have an AIS receiver (I do). Another thing that has been there for a while that I never tried is that you can overlay a Google Earth image on the chart of your current position and drag and size it to whatever size you want.
Above I moved to a favorite key in Florida's 10,000 Islands and you can see that OpenCPN also moved Google Earth there. This is really nice for seeing features like the nice beaches there that you can't see on a NOAA chart. You can zoom the Google Earth image in or out or move it but if you do nothing as the boat moves or if you move the chart OpenCPM will move Google Earth along with you.
Now you do have to be connected to the internet for this to work. I bought a Walmart mobile Trackphone Hotspot to use on the road and on the boat so a lot of places if I want to connect this should work but wouldn't work at that location in the 10,000 Islands as there is no cell service there. What OpenCPN does allow you to do is go to a location when you do have internet and then save a screen shot of that location to be viewed later.
I think I'm really going to like this as you can check out anchorages and such before arriving at them to see if they are remote or maybe in someone's front yard and it will be great in just being able to see a place before you get there,
Sumner
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]============================
Our Endeavour 37
Our MacGregor 26-S Pages
Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida
Mac-Venture Links[/FONT]
