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Category: Charts

NV Charts, the paper & digital sweet spot? 15

Charts

NV Charts, the paper & digital sweet spot?

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When I wrote about NV Charts after the 2011 Miami Show, I appreciated their unique approach to recreational charts. For one thing, they make their own (though based on official sources), and for another they won’t sell digital versions without the paper version (or vice versa, your choice!). But now that I’ve had some hand’s on time with the actual products, I’m even more appreciative. These are beautifully made charts no matter which way you look at them…

Crowdsourced soundings on the ICW, CruisersNet & more 7

Charts

Crowdsourced soundings on the ICW, CruisersNet & more

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As a guy who may actually cruise the Intercoastal Waterway this fall (as opposed to last year, when I only talked about it!), I’m delighted that there’s so much competition to collect and share relevant information about it. A particularly notable development is the way CruisersNet.net has teamed with Survice Engineering and EarthNC to overlay the former’s “Argus” volunteer-collected and tide-corrected depth data onto the latter’s slick online charting engine, along with lots of other valuable CruiserNet info. The screenshot above shows hundreds of recent ICW soundings less than 12 feet, and also a professionally researched “Problem Area” note, and of course you can drill down to much greater detail…

Vesper Marine Virtual AIS Beacon, and more 25

Safety & SAR / Charts / AIS

Vesper Marine Virtual AIS Beacon, and more

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That’s New Zealand’s fascinating Fiordland coast and while I’m not positive the photo was taken from a helicopter, I do know that the solar-powered navigation light in the foreground is serviced by one. Which is how the technicians who recently added an AIS transponder to the site got there too. But you won’t see the nav light on an AIS plotting screen because the transponder is programmed to mark a dangerous submerged rock at the mouth of Doubtful Sound 3.4 miles in the distance. Now the visiting cruise ships report that they can now plot Tarapunga Rock from 10 miles offshore or from two miles inside the Sound. The concept is called a Virtual Aid to Navigation, or VAtoN, and while it’s the first I know detail of, I’m sure it won’t be the last…

Raymarine e7, hand’s on #2 10

Wireless & Apps / Navigation / Charts

Raymarine e7, hand’s on #2

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The Raymarine e7 that’s been in the Panbo lab for a few weeks is proving itself quite able and well designed, but I’ve come across enough little glitches and omissions that I think it’s also a good test of the new Ray’s ability to push out software fixes and improvements. That chart window above, for instance, should be showing
spot soundings. Now it could be that I don’t have the chart presentation set up right, but even if that’s true, I suspect the menus involved can be improved to help a user like me. On the other hand, that screen shot is from an iPad streaming the e7 over WiFi, and that feature not only works well but continues to intrigue…

Jeppesen C-Maps, Coastal Explorer 2011 & Plan2Nav 0

Wireless & Apps / Navigation / Charts

Jeppesen C-Maps, Coastal Explorer 2011 & Plan2Nav

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If you don’t cruise outside the U.S. it may not matter, but Coastal Explorer users who do seem quite excited that the PC charting program will soon support the worldwide portfolio of Jeppesen C-Map Max charts and maybe even NT+ cards. You can hear the enthusiasm, and learn a lot of detail about how support will work, by checking out this CE Beta testing forum entry. Better yet, if you already run CE 2011, you can download the Beta from the same page and then use its rich chart management features to download some of C-Map’s generous demo cartography…

FLIBS 2011: Geonav autorouting, from C-Map & Navionics 2

Navigation / Charts

FLIBS 2011: Geonav autorouting, from C-Map & Navionics

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FLIBS was my first chance to see the autorouting capabilities of C-Map 4D in action, and I liked what I saw. And not only is Geonav the first to make the feature available but it’s also the first to enable a similar autorouting feature from Navionics (which I wasn’t even aware of). As with other “Dual Fuel” chart features, Geonav tried to make the interface on the G12 (and G10) the same so that users switching between C-Map and Navionics cards aren’t confused. That’s why the details of the menus above and below are the same no matter which type of chart you’re using…

“Monkey Business” — blast from the past #1 3

Charts

“Monkey Business” — blast from the past #1

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Did you ever see the first-in-20-years Bob Dylan interview with Ed Bradley where Dylan expresses astonishment at lyrics he once wrote (like It’s Alright, Ma), and said he couldn’t do again? A memorable TV moment with a weird and reluctant diety, I thought. My work is absolutely not comparable to Dylan’s, but I do sometimes run across a piece written long ago that surprises me in a good way. That happened today with a 2004 PMY column called “Monkey Business” whose intriguing subtitle is “Charts separate men from apes, but the path from paper to digital passes through the jungle.” I thought I’d republish it with the images that are no longer online, plus links, corrections, and more images. Hope you enjoy…

Nigel Calder update, charts & HyMar 14

Electrical & Engines / Charts

Nigel Calder update, charts & HyMar

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Nigel Calder and I talked non-stop for about six hours on Friday (and probably could have kept going if we were younger men). He visited because he’s working on a new edition of How to Read a Nautical Chart and wanted to check out the latest in electronic charts, particularly the mobile apps. I was happy to help with that, and I also got to ask some questions about Gizmo’s systems and find out what’s up with his marine hybrid project. I’ve always liked Nigel’s chart book; while it’s largely a nice reprint of NOAA’s Chart 1 guide to symbology — no longer published by NOAA, though available for download — it also includes some terrific history of cartography along with analysis of where it’s going electronically. I’ll be particularly interested to see what he discovers when visiting the Chart of the Future project at UNH, which is apparently related to a new vector chart standard (interesting S100 PDF here). I was also pleased to learn that Nigel shares my enthusiasm for improving charts with crowd sourcing and even for 3D charting, and he’s not a guy who’s easily impressed with the latest thing…

MIBS # 5: C-Map, EarthNC, & MapMedia news 20

Wireless & Apps / Charts

MIBS # 5: C-Map, EarthNC, & MapMedia news

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It’s a lousy photo, for sure, but Jeppesen C-Map has not yet announced its iPad charting app, let alone released screen shots, though I found it one of the nicest surprises of the Miami show.  It seems that C-Map not only intends to match Navionics’ much appreciated efforts to offer inexpensive but detailed marine cartography on multiple apps platforms, but to do it even better.  Note, for instance, the “CWeather” button on the menu bar above, and that C-Map has been working to overlay weather data on plotters since at least 2004 (though the then available mechanisms — a complicated cellular connection, or a data card transfer — were awkward).  I’m not sure what CWeather offers today (the Jeppesen site says only European data), but we know that a connected tablet or phone can make the download process very easy.