chart software
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Open CPN is free. Lot of people use it.
http://opencpn.org/ocpn/
Nuno is fun and easy to use. It is not free. But the demo version runs for 30 minutes at a time before it exits. For blog use it might be fine
http://www.nunonavigator.com/
Mary I have Open CPN and SeaClear both on the computer. Open was easer to just get up and running, but after taking a few more hours with SeaClear I like it better for some reason. As mentioned they are both free and so are the NOAA charts that you use with them.
We also do all of our navigation with SeaClear. I can set up the days route in just a couple minutes and then save it for future reference or if we are back in the same area.
To use it with our trip diary I pull up the days route I want to post and zoom it to the level I want to show and then hit the "print screen" key on the key board and paste it into a simple graphics editor I use that is open in a different window. Crop the area I want and then save it and paste it in the days trip diary.
Sounds a little complicated, but it takes less than a minute to do.
Here is an example of three screen shots form SeaClear showing our route from Factory Bay at Marco Island to Turtle Key in the 10,000 Islands...
======================================
Factory Bay/Marco Island upper left with Anchorage near Turtle Key at the lower right.
To get from Factory Bay, upper left arrow over to Goodland, right arrows and beyond you navigate the Marco River between the arrows. Another stretch that I would be very cautious about taking with a larger boat with more draft. There is some very shallow water adjacent to the channel in places. Now you will see that we actually navigated this section 3 times as we ended up having to go back to Marco Island for a day. We never ran aground, but we weren't also very relaxed until the last two trips.
The current by the bridge over to Marco Island, top right arrow can be very strong and you have to do two very sharp 90's by the bridge to stay in deep water and that can put you at 90 degrees to the bridge that can be exciting. We only had the strong current on the return to Marco and it sure got our attention at and under the bridge.
After leaving Goodland, upper left arrow, you run out into the Gulf and you want to check the weather, wind and wave height before you do that as you will be exposed before you turn up the channel by Turtle Key to an anchorage.
=====================
The images and dialog above are from this day....
http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner/FL-spring-2011/FL-Spring-11-8.html
.... of our trip. Not sure if that is what you want to do with chart software or not. I'll be looking forward to the blog no matter what you use,
Sum
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Our Endeavour 37[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Our MacGregor S Pages[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Mac-Venture Links[/FONT]
We also do all of our navigation with SeaClear. I can set up the days route in just a couple minutes and then save it for future reference or if we are back in the same area.
To use it with our trip diary I pull up the days route I want to post and zoom it to the level I want to show and then hit the "print screen" key on the key board and paste it into a simple graphics editor I use that is open in a different window. Crop the area I want and then save it and paste it in the days trip diary.
Sounds a little complicated, but it takes less than a minute to do.
Here is an example of three screen shots form SeaClear showing our route from Factory Bay at Marco Island to Turtle Key in the 10,000 Islands...
======================================
Factory Bay/Marco Island upper left with Anchorage near Turtle Key at the lower right.
To get from Factory Bay, upper left arrow over to Goodland, right arrows and beyond you navigate the Marco River between the arrows. Another stretch that I would be very cautious about taking with a larger boat with more draft. There is some very shallow water adjacent to the channel in places. Now you will see that we actually navigated this section 3 times as we ended up having to go back to Marco Island for a day. We never ran aground, but we weren't also very relaxed until the last two trips.
The current by the bridge over to Marco Island, top right arrow can be very strong and you have to do two very sharp 90's by the bridge to stay in deep water and that can put you at 90 degrees to the bridge that can be exciting. We only had the strong current on the return to Marco and it sure got our attention at and under the bridge.
After leaving Goodland, upper left arrow, you run out into the Gulf and you want to check the weather, wind and wave height before you do that as you will be exposed before you turn up the channel by Turtle Key to an anchorage.
=====================
The images and dialog above are from this day....
http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner/FL-spring-2011/FL-Spring-11-8.html
.... of our trip. Not sure if that is what you want to do with chart software or not. I'll be looking forward to the blog no matter what you use,
Sum
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Our Endeavour 37[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Our MacGregor S Pages[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Mac-Venture Links[/FONT]
Another good choice
We've been pretty happy with GPSNavX for over five years. New versions are provided at no cost by the sailor/programer that authors it.
Inexpensive application and we like using the free d/l NOAA charts.
http://www.gpsnavx.com/index.php?page=Home
(No personal or financial connection, BTW.)
L
ps: we use the Globalsat Bu-353. Works well even down inside the boat at the nav desk.
We've been pretty happy with GPSNavX for over five years. New versions are provided at no cost by the sailor/programer that authors it.
Inexpensive application and we like using the free d/l NOAA charts.
http://www.gpsnavx.com/index.php?page=Home
(No personal or financial connection, BTW.)
L
ps: we use the Globalsat Bu-353. Works well even down inside the boat at the nav desk.
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Thanks to Sumner and others regarding chart software. Downloaded free http://www.opencpn.org software and charts from NOAA,
http://www.charts.noaa.gov/RNCs/RNCs.shtml. It does everything I wanted.
http://www.charts.noaa.gov/RNCs/RNCs.shtml. It does everything I wanted.
Mary,
I bought a USB GPS for $35USD to plug into my laptop and it talks to OpenCPN and plots your current location on the chart. I'm currently using this just as a back up for the chartplotter and as a planning aid for trips.
Now if I could just get OpenCPN and ActiveCaptain to talk to each other...
I bought a USB GPS for $35USD to plug into my laptop and it talks to OpenCPN and plots your current location on the chart. I'm currently using this just as a back up for the chartplotter and as a planning aid for trips.
Now if I could just get OpenCPN and ActiveCaptain to talk to each other...
I bought the Pharos GPS-360 from Amazon online. It needed a new driver to make it work with OpenCPN but that was a free download. The receiver is on a shelf next to the nav station and still grabs the satellites quickly.
I tested the system at the house and could not pick up a signal indoors. So off to the truck and a test drive around the neighborhood. Worked great but I hope that is the only time it ever shows me being MILES away from the nearest water. LOL
I tested the system at the house and could not pick up a signal indoors. So off to the truck and a test drive around the neighborhood. Worked great but I hope that is the only time it ever shows me being MILES away from the nearest water. LOL
I've bought 2 GlobalSat BU-353 ($25.28) ....
http://www.amazon.com/GlobalSat-BU-353-Waterproof-USB-Receiver/dp/B000PKX2KA
that work fine for us. The second is a backup,
Sum
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Our Endeavour 37[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Our MacGregor S Pages[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Mac-Venture Links[/FONT]
That looks great, looks like you are good to goWe have the same USB GPS Receiver, USGlobalSat BU-353. Installed it today and tried it at home. Works great. Here's.....
.. pic showing the little boat that indicates location.
.We were anchored not to far from you....
... a year ago...
http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner/FL-fall-2010/FL-Fall-10-16.html
There was a great ...
sunset. You guys would be located to the port side of the mast.
So when does the trip start?
Sum
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Our Endeavour 37[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Our MacGregor S Pages[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Mac-Venture Links[/FONT]
It is simple and fast to do, but a little convoluted to explain.
I created the arrow with the simple windows graphic/draw program with just straight lines and put a couple on a page and saved it as a jpg file.
I edit all of the pictures I post with another older simple program call SnapShot Express that came with something (no longer available). I like it because it is simple and fast and lets me not only crop the picture but also resize the actual file size of the picture when I save it. This was important when I was on dialup and wanted pictures less than 50K.
So I gather the pictures I'm going to edit along with the 'arrow picture'...
With SnapShot I can load the arrow picture once per session and click on the arrow I want to use and copy it to SnapShot's clipboard.
Then as I edit the individual pictures I can paste the arrow onto them. Right after it pastes I can re-size the arrow and drag it to where I want it and rotate it. Each time I 'paste' I get a new arrow. The arrow stays on the clipboard to be pasted at any time until I leave SnapShot. It just takes a second or two to put an arrow where I want it and I can usually edit a picture and re-save it in well under a minute each. I did 50 last night in about 35 minutes that I posted showing the new bimini build.
I would think that most graphic editors can do what I described above. Good luck and let me know if I can help and I'll look forward to seeing some arrow's on your blog
,Sum
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Our Endeavour 37[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Our MacGregor S Pages[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Mac-Venture Links[/FONT]
Hey that usb reciever (USB GPS Receiver, USGlobalSat BU-353). Does it have itso own softwate for maps or do you still need to have your own?
Any idea ware I can find free charts for Canada? I live in London Ontario.
Thanks Finding
Any idea ware I can find free charts for Canada? I live in London Ontario.
Thanks Finding
Good luck trying to find anything for free in Canada. I tried to find some last year and came up blank. If someone finds some I would like to know.
It is only going to show the software that you are using, in my case SeaClear or OpenCPN, where you presently are.
I also don't know where you are going to find free charts for there. I've converted free USGS Topo....
http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner/macgregor-navigation/Navigation Aids-Index.html
...maps for use with SeaClear that are available for any place in the U.S.. Some show the contours before a man-made lake went in so you can get some idea of depths and are useful for looking for potential anchorages, but for the rest of the inland lakes you only know where you are not how deep the water is.
Good luck,
Sum
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Our Endeavour 37[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Our MacGregor S Pages[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Mac-Venture Links[/FONT]
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