Using Google Earth to Scope Out a Marina Fairway Clearance

[sail sfbay]

Ever use google earth to scope out a berthing spot for at a new marina? I frequently do for my 50 ft boat to make sure I have enough room to maneuver. Tomorrow we will go to Schoonmaker Point Marina in Sausalito, California for a couple of nights to new guest slip on A dock vs. a side tie on the dock on the far right of the marina where we normally stay. As shown in the attached Google Earth view, the fairway width is 75 ft after we make a turn left into and guest dock is 57 ft. Should be comfortable maneuvering with the option to bow in or spin the boat around and stern in AND hopefully relatively wind protected...will see.

 

[dlochner]

Pretty amazing what you can do with Google Earth. A few years ago we replaced the roof on my mother-in-law's house. The roofing company never came to the house to measure, they used GE to measure the roof and estimate materials and labor.

 

[Davidasailor26]

I agree, it’s very cool. The 3D view is pretty interesting too. Here’s a view of a random street near my marina-

It doesn’t seem to do too well with tall skinny masts and boats that rock back and forth though -

 

[Johnb]

More than a decade ago, as an experiment, I used Google Earth to find and measure the length of a whole bunch of NFL football fields. The results were amazing, accuracy to within inches.

 

[sail sfbay]

Used it all the time in my job to make photos of oil, utilities and effluent pipeline routing and measure their pipeline lengths and make plot layouts for new oil refinery facilities. Also use it to scope out new rv parks to make sure there is sufficient room to maneuver a long bed crew cab truck towing a 41 ft fifth wheel trailer.

 

[jssailem]

If you look at your home and you have vehicles outside that may have been in unique positions over the years, you can get an idea of the month or even week that they tooks the photo of your house from the orbiting camera. Now imagine that they have had this technology for a number of years. That what you are seeing is degraded. That the current ability to take images and enhance them are 20 years advanced. What you imagine has already been done.

It is mind boggling.

 

[Johnb]

If you look at your home and you have vehicles outside that may have been in unique positions over the years, you can get an idea of the month or even week that they tooks the photo of your house from the orbiting camera. Now imagine that they have had this technology for a number of years. That what you are seeing is degraded. That the current ability to take images and enhance them are 20 years advanced. What you imagine has already been done.

It is mind boggling.

Additional boggling can be attained by exploring street view and seeing how many millions of miles in all parts of the planet have been documented.

 

[Tedd]

If you look at your home and you have vehicles outside that may have been in unique positions over the years, you can get an idea of the month or even week that they tooks the photo of your house from the orbiting camera.

You don't even need to do that, on Google Earth. If you look at the bottom of the screen it shows the date of the image.

 

[Captain Larry-DH]

You can also use a range/bearing line in most nav programs. I frequently use the one in my Navionics app.

 

[SEMPERAVANTI41]

I used Goggle earth to pick a seasonal slip 6 years ago at a marina in NY. We could choose between a number of available slips, without leaving our office.