What do you use for coastal navigation?

[ris]

I have a garmin 188c chartplotter that came with the boat. I have a card for the bahamas and south florida, but it does not cover the area where I will spend most of my time. I have a friend who is a yacht capt. and he says they have all the fancy stuff but they use a ipad with navionics charts a lot as they can carry it around with them on the boat. I wasn't sure if I should go the ipad way or just get a card for the garmin. I will be on the florida coast most of the time except for when we try doing the Loop.

[RGF]

I use both, ris. My Raymarine E7D wifi links to my Iphone and Ipad with apps so the E7D can stay at the pedestal but I will see the same on my phone or pad below or anyplace on the boat. Also have the Navionics app.

[Russ]

I can't see the ipad in the sun.

[Chinook]

I originally equipped our boat with the Garmin 188, with depth sounder, and it served well for many years. On our first trip to the Bahamas, in 2004, I had the Explorer chartbook, and pretty much relied on that and my eyes for navigation. I didn't have any detailed electronic chart chips for the Bahamas. It goes without saying that, regardless of what you use in the way of electronics, you definitely want to have good paper charts. You didn't mention depth sounder. As I mentioned, the sounder was built into our original Garmin, however, it failed several years ago. I changed out the transducer, but the depth function still didn't work. The chart plotter was still fine, but I needed a functioning depth sounder, so replaced the Garmin with a 541, with color screen. It comes with built in electronic charts for all of the US, part of Canada, and the Bahamas. A newer GPS will also have built in, up to date tide and current data, which is very helpful. You should also know that your 188 is old enough that Garmin is unable to support it any longer. If it failed while you were out there, you'd be stuck with ordering a new one, and that would be very costly and time consuming if you were out of the country.

[Tomfoolery]

I just use Chart Navigator from Maptech on an old notebook PC running XP (2001) that's not good for much else these days. A little hockey puck GPS antenna, any chart NOAA has, downloaded for free, and an inverter in case I need to run on boat power. Not the best solution, especially in the bright sun, but I leave it down below anyway, let the screen blank out after 30 seconds to save power (using my custom navigation power save mode ), and I'm happy. Has a night mode with black screen and red traces, too, which I've used with the computer in the cockpit to pick my way into an unfamiliar marina after dark.

If that would work on an iPad, which I don't own, I'd be even happier. And you've gotta love the free charts, which are the same raster images used for the full-sized NOAA charts.

And speaking of which, I also keep paper charts. Just in case. And I still know how to use them, though those skilz will fade with time if not practiced at least a little.

[DaveB]

I always have paper charts on board but I love my Iphone 6 that I downloaded Charts app and gives me all the navigation charts were I am at, also have GPS hand held. My Sextant is in my storage locker and my 229 and 249 reduction tables books are collecting dust on the shelve.
Dave

I have a garmin 188c chartplotter that came with the boat. I have a card for the bahamas and south florida, but it does not cover the area where I will spend most of my time. I have a friend who is a yacht capt. and he says they have all the fancy stuff but they use a ipad with navionics charts a lot as they can carry it around with them on the boat. I wasn't sure if I should go the ipad way or just get a card for the garmin. I will be on the florida coast most of the time except for when we try doing the Loop.

[March]

ris wrote:
have a garmin 188c chartplotter that came with the boat. I have a card for the bahamas and south florida, but it does not cover the area where I will spend most of my time. I have a friend who is a yacht capt. and he says they have all the fancy stuff but they use a ipad with navionics charts a lot as they can carry it around with them on the boat. I wasn't sure if I should go the ipad way or just get a card for the garmin. I will be on the florida coast most of the time except for when we try doing the Loop.

Good luck finding charts for Garmin 188 expansion card. When I asked for a replacement card for Lake Superior last summer (I had misplaced mine) they fairly laughed in my face.
The best you can do is get the Garmin CD (BlueCharts), all the necessary hardware to transcribe the portions you're interested in, pay Garmin $120.00 (or more) for the unlocking code. The CD does come with one code to unlock, but that;s not going to cover all of the Bahamas.
Time to move to a higher GPS level.

[tlgibson97]

I use the lakemaps charts on my Humminbird fishfinder. For backup I use navionics and an app called navipad that lets me install the NOAA charts. It's like having the paper charts with GPS position.

Navionics is incorporating their Sonarcharts which uses data uploaded by people that save their soundings.

Using those three has worked well. Because it is hard to see ipads/iphones in the sun, I typically only use them for planning purposes and compare them to my fishfinder charts and plot necessary waypoints so they are easy to see.

[fishheadbarandgrill]

Navionics on my iPad.

[mastreb]

My problem with all the portable devices is mounting them securely and with power, lack of instrument connectivity (without a lot of supporting trons), visibility in direct sun, and the fact that they don't stay lit up constantly. I tend to use the iPad for route planning in the cabin, but I use the chart plotter exclusively when I'm navigating.

If you were going to spend money on anything, I'd just upgrade the chart plotter to a Garmin 4xx or 5xx series. I have the Garmin 740 and recommend it as the largest chart plotter that will fit comfortably on the helm, but that's about twice the price.

Just make sure you get the model that comes with the charts you need.

[innervations]

+1 for Navionics on the iPad

[Ixneigh]

I have an older garmin chart plotter. It used to have a battery so you could take it with you in the dinghy but now I just plug it in. I use that for just kicking around. I have a brand new smaller handheld as a back up. I also have navionics on my phone however now they want 50 dollars to get it on my iPad.
I use the phone app while down below.
Plus paper charts that haven't seen the light of day in some time.
Ix

[sailboatmike]

Yes in good old Aus there is no free lunch like the US have with their free to download raster charts, how good would that be?????

In NSW government has some free download charts I think, not sure of the quality or scope of them.

I cant really see the point in making people pay for them, its not as if they have to carry them so you have them over a barrel,

I would think that as a safety thing they would just throw the doors open, but we are in Aus, so we have to make everyone pay 3 times the going rate for anything with "Marine" on it

[Carioca]

I use Isailor on Iphone, only $5 for a chart.

[JotaErre]

I use a handheld Garmin e-trex.