Caribbean Charts

[T J Furstenau]

I'm still 2 summers out, but in 2025 we plan on taking our boat out of the Great Lakes, done the east coast, and to the Caribbean. In preparation for that, one of my re-fit tasks is to upgrade the electronics from the 15+ year old Raymarine C80 chartplotter to the Axiom+ MFD. Part of that decision/purchase process is to decide which charts to get it with - Navionics or Lighthouse. Are any of you cruising the Caribbean with the newer Raymarine equipment that can speak to either chart set and offer some insight? Unfortunately, coming out of the "COVID era", boat shows here have gotten lame to almost non-existent and trying to get to a booth where I can compare side by side hasn't really been possible.

So, I'm reaching out to you wizened old salts with hopes of getting some feedback.

Thanks!

T J

 

[Captain Larry-DH]

Navionics
Also, the best app for the East Coast US is Aqua Maps. Download the ActiveCaptain and USACE add-ins and Skipper Bob’s tracks.

 

[Nate]

What we did in the Great Lakes and Erie Canal was all Navionics+ on our Raymarine chart plotter. Then once in the Atlantic and going down the coast we bought Aqua Map subscription with the add-on for the USACE overlays. That was nice because then we had our main chart plotter that we used 100% of the time and would complement it with the Aqua Maps on the phone which we had in a mount. Aqua Maps was great for the times we were in the ICW and the inlets. Also, we liked Aqua Maps in Bahamas though sonar charts on Navionics were also good to us there. Carribean so far seems like Aqua Maps is pretty useless and Navionics is quite good.

 

[dLj]

Navionics
Also, the best app for the East Coast US is Aqua Maps. Download the ActiveCaptain and USACE add-ins and Skipper Bob’s tracks.

I would say using Aqua Maps for the ICW is excellent.

Using Skipper Bobs' long tracks on the ICW are the best no matter what base program you are using..

But for anything off-shore on the East coast there are numerous options.

I have not used Aqua Maps but I found OpenCPN, Navionics, and Garmin to be quite good for off-shore sailing.

I pulled Skipper Bob's tracks into OpenCPN when I just did the section of the ICW I just traveled. I coupled that with the free Waterways Guide and it was excellent.

I also pulled his tracks into my Navionics, but as I'm running Navionics on my cell phone, not a chart plotter, there was no way to make Bobs tracks a route so the cell phone app of Navionics was pretty much useless.

Certainly if I was running the ICW with any kind of frequency, Aqua Maps would be my go-to.

With respect to the OP's question about maps for the Caribbean, I used Navionics, Garmin and OpenCPN. I found all three of the systems I was using had somewhat different bits of information, putting them together was better than running any one alone. Any one of those three would be sufficient for that region. But having more than one information source I also would say is a good idea.

I'd like to hear feedback on Aqua Maps for that region. I know nothing about the Axiom asked about...

dj