How often do you update a chart card?

[Bob S]

The weather is beginning to warm up (I'm probably speaking too soon) and had a few questions running through my head.

I have a Raymarine C70 and use a Navionics card. How often would you recommend changing them out/ upgrade them?

How about the Eldridge Book. I buy a new one every year. I threw out the 08 book so I never got a chance to see what kind of changes where made between 08 and 09. The book isn't too expensive so I'll buy a new one but was wondering. Is there a big time difference between Ebb and Flood tides from year to year?

 

[Rich Stidger]

Bob,

I can't really recommend an interval for chart card updates, but I would buy new paper charts about every ten years or after I lost a chartkit overboard- whichever comes first. The right answer is probably when you feel the need and are uncomfortable with your current revision. I know, it's not a real answer.

Regarding the Eldridge, I have been told that the times of tides and currents are approximately on a four-year cycle. That is to say that the 2010 times would be close to the 2006, 2011 close to 2007, etc. I have not checked this out, it's only hearsay. Regardless, close might not be close enough so you might want to buy one each year.

OTOH, there is useful info in the Eldridge that does not change each year and I keep an older copy on board. I stopped buying an Eldridge a couple years ago after acquiring a chartplotter that has all the tide and current data built-in. Additionally, I have a laptop on board and it also has current and tide software. With these two independent (none the less electronic) sources, I don't feel that I need a Eldridge.

Per your specific question, yes the times of tides are significantly different from one year to the next.

 

[sailingdog]

Getting a new almanac every year is just common sense. While most chart plotters would give you the tide information, having it in hardcopy is often easier for planning purposes.

As for charts, it depends on how often you update the charts from the notices to mariners. If you have up-to-date paper charts, then updating the electronic ones isn't as critical. If you have up-to-date electronic charts, then updating the paper ones isn't as critical, but more important than updating electronic charts IMHO, since if you lose the electronics, you will be relying on the paper charts.

 

[Bob S]

Thanks Rich & Dan. I planned on buying a new copy of Eldridge. I will check it against my chartplotter and see how it compares.

As for the Navionics Card, they are relatively expensive. This will be the third year with my current card. I was hoping to get another year or two from it. I always purchase paper charts for any area I plan on sailing.

 

[Ross]

Use this website for comparing your chartcard to the latest updates.
http://ocsdata.ncd.noaa.gov/BookletChart/

 

[shemandr]

I'm bored and its dangerous to post in said state; but, how often does the government change its data?
The datum used most often is 1983! The bottom, except in areas of shoaling doesn't change very much. What does change is the government markings. In our local area, for reasons that escape me, the GC changed the buoy numbering. The buoys stayed in the same places. For locals it was just confusion in Sailing Instructions. For visitors it might create a lot of anxiety. But, the chartplotters show the relationships between safe passage and danger so well you would have to be an idiot to have a problem. And, the changes were in the LNM so cuisers would have access to the info if so motivated.
On the other hand, for another example, if they changed the buoyage in Lord's Passage off Watch Hill RI, you could easily end up on the rocks.
I haven't updated my chip - mostly because I don't know how. I do read the LNM for local areas and for where I will be cruising.
I'm also the guy who complained about my Garmin 176C going bust. I would have used it until the planets stopped rotating.

 

[Ross]

Shemander, On some of the charts they have a page of the latest bottom survey. The primary purpose of the charts is for commercial navigation so areas not subject to commercial traffic some of the bottom surveys date to early 1930's But the coast pilot is always up to date.

 

[shemandr]

Ross,
Thanks for that. I went to the web site cited above and quickly found my local waters and excerpts from Coast Pilot. Do you know where I can get the actual coast pilot? Is that a government pub or private? Or is it more like LNM for which you need to review periodically to keep up to date? I get LNM email updates from the CG but they can take a while to scroll through for scant relevant info. And the format isn't so easy to follow not to mention the numerous abbreviations. I woudn't mind skiipping all the warnings about Narwhales and getting to buoyage changes, off stations, wrecks etc.

 

[richk]

datum and data

I'm bored and its dangerous to post in said state; but, how often does the government change its data?
The datum used most often is 1983! The bottom, except in areas of shoaling doesn't change very much. What does change is the government markings. In our local area, for reasons that escape me, the GC changed the buoy numbering. The buoys stayed in the same places. For locals it was just confusion in Sailing Instructions. For visitors it might create a lot of anxiety. But, the chartplotters show the relationships between safe passage and danger so well you would have to be an idiot to have a problem. And, the changes were in the LNM so cuisers would have access to the info if so motivated.
On the other hand, for another example, if they changed the buoyage in Lord's Passage off Watch Hill RI, you could easily end up on the rocks.
I haven't updated my chip - mostly because I don't know how. I do read the LNM for local areas and for where I will be cruising.
I'm also the guy who complained about my Garmin 176C going bust. I would have used it until the planets stopped rotating.

Shemandr-

Not to put too fine a point on it but perhaps there's confusion about the difference between datum and data. Data typically refers, in this context, to the information gathered upon which a chart is based, viz. depth, lat, long. A datum is a reference, derived model of the globe. This is important because the datum is the basis for geolocating the data in earth-centered space and thereby ensures the chart depicts the data accurately.

 

[zeehag]

DATA IS PLURAL And datum is singular--is latin....

 

[Ross]

Ross,
Thanks for that. I went to the web site cited above and quickly found my local waters and excerpts from Coast Pilot. Do you know where I can get the actual coast pilot? Is that a government pub or private? Or is it more like LNM for which you need to review periodically to keep up to date? I get LNM email updates from the CG but they can take a while to scroll through for scant relevant info. And the format isn't so easy to follow not to mention the numerous abbreviations. I woudn't mind skiipping all the warnings about Narwhales and getting to buoyage changes, off stations, wrecks etc.

Try this: http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/nsd/cpdownload.htm

 

[RobG]

shemandr

Being in PDF format just [ctrl F] for a "find" pop-up. Type in your chart # and you can use the prev/next arrows to jump around the doc. It gets you around the NTM to relevant info very quickly

What happend to your GPS MAP 176C? I must have missed that thread. I use one.

This is a great question for those of us who have to pay lots for a pre-loaded card.

 

[shemandr]

I've just ordered the Coast Pilot for area #2. I'm looking forward to looking through it. There's a new edition in October but I'd like to see the whole document now.

RobG: The unit won't power up. Garmin is no longer supporting or repairing those.

 

[Ross]

I've just ordered the Coast Pilot for area #2. I'm looking forward to looking through it. There's a new edition in October but I'd like to see the whole document now.

RobG: The unit won't power up. Garmin is no longer supporting or repairing those.

You Bought a copy? you can just click the book cover for a PDF copy free.

 

[Bob S]

Ross,

I bought a copy too but that was before you posted your link. I actually like the old fashion charts. They're big and I can see the whole area I'm sailing. The ones I can print for free I have to try laying them out sometimes three pages deep and three pages wide.

 

[sailingdog]

You need a bigger printer.

Ross,

I bought a copy too but that was before you posted your link. I actually like the old fashion charts. They're big and I can see the whole area I'm sailing. The ones I can print for free I have to try laying them out sometimes three pages deep and three pages wide.

 

[Stu Jackson]

Chart booklet free downloads

From a friend's 1500 Mile Update from a cruise from Vancouver BC to Mexico, he'd just reached San Francisco when he wrote this:

- print as you go charts. I have two chartplotters, but cannot sail without hard copy. My concept was to print out the NOAA chart books as we go. Bad idea. Hate the little charts. Hate printing them, collating them and putting them into sleeves. I've bought chart books. I couldn't store or afford full size charts for the whole coast. Chart books are a good compromise.

Kinda sums the whole thing up.

 

[shemandr]

Yeah I'm a dinosaur in that regard. I find a hard copy easier to read and easier to find the info I'm looking fr. I looked at the pdf but have to scroll to see each page or make the type too small to read. Also I don't always take my laptop for cruising. I may get the October update pdf but by then I'll know which parts I really will want. But thanks for the link and I hope to start my summer cruise planning tonight.