Following Cisco's talk about his tablet with the Navionics GPS mapping, I thought it might be a good topic of discussion as I for one would like to know more about it.
Just bougt the Braun 10.1" tablet with GPS and it takes a 32 gig mini SD card.

So ask away and or tell us of your navigation ideas.

I use a laptop with a 16 inch screen running Seaclear. You can see it in my photos.

When I update shortly it will be to a 22 inch screen, there is no substitute for screen real estate.

Recently installed a raymarine chart plotter as i didnt have a sounder so decided may as well get a combination unit. Prior to that an ipad with navionics which works well, how ever the charts stopped a couple of km before the slips i used last time ( cove marine), quite unnerving with no depth sounder. next time at least i will know the depth. Interestingly the basic navionics on my ipad does not have detailed charts of lake macquarie . I havent looked at the chart plotter for that yet , hoping to drop in there on the way to sydney in a couple of months.

I am partly with Cisco.

As one who navigated for a living for many years I believe most yachties know very little about how to navigate safely between two locations. While I use the chart plotter as my primary navigation, I plan the trip using charts, Pilots etc and keep a following plot on a chart.
If you think a chart plotter navigates for you and have limited nav theory, do the Yachtmaster Offshore/Ocean Theory course to understand how dangerous reliance on the plotter can be. Reliance on a plotter is especially dangerous in areas with strong tidal flows and currents.

As long as you are aware that not all obstructions show on tablets at various zooms. Remember the accident off Wollongong a few years ago.

Do you have to buy the charts for seaclear or do they automatically upload?

SirJman said..

Do you have to buy the charts for seaclear or do they automatically upload?

We live in Australia mate, where you pays for everything twice.

The taxpayer funds the Australian Hydrographic Service who make the charts in paper and digital format. Then if you want to use a chart you have to buy it.

In the U.S. their digital charts are available to download for free. They figure the taxpayer has already paid for them and rightly so.

Southace
Which anchor alarm app do you use? I can't find one that doesn't chew out the battery on the not so smart phone.
Thanks,
feral

Let's get some things sorted here. Like you Boatin, I come from quite a few years aviation background so the Nav basics of charts, tracks and allowance for currents, wind etc were pretty much straight forward when doing the sailing nav course. And that brings me to making sure you are talking about apples or oranges when you talk about what will satisfy your nav need. First there is the passage planning, identifying your waypoints and writing into your sail plan the magnetic tracks, distances and time intervals from your departure point to each waypoint until your destination. Yes you can do all this on paper charts but its often more convenient to use a nav program. With paper charts unless your passage is a short one, you will be going from chart to chart and, in accordance with Murphy's law, your departure point and destination point will not be on the same chart. I purchased QuickCharts ($189 from Whitworths). This is an Australian product which uses MemoryMap as the nav program together with the Australian Raster Charts loaded on, so the maps are the same as the paper charts. Some people have complained it is a bit clunky and I would agree because memorymap was originally intended for bushwalking but I have found a way to make it work for my nav planning and it is pretty cool. It automatically opens the adjoining chart and I can plot the course simply by selecting waypoints by dragging and clicking and the program automatically calculates true and magnetic headings, distances and time intervals. I can even generate and print out the passage plan, including not only the tracks, distances and time intervals but also features along the way and VMR radio frequencies along the way. So having planned your trip and finally casting off on that big day, you are now into a different Nav need. And that is to know where you are. Again, it is always a requirement to have your paper charts on board and to regularly plot your position. But just about everyone these days has some electronic nav system to be sure to be sure, as they say in the Blarney. There are other magic things too that electronic systems can do more efficiently such as giving you the details of the lights you are seeing along the way, tide information and even weather. I have the QuickCharts loaded onto my laptop aand can simply plug a GPS into the USB slot and voila the program tracks my progress on the display. I can see if I am on track or if there is some difference between planned track and track made good due to wind or current and I can then make the necessary correction to my heading. But the laptop is sitting on my chart table down below and I am usually up on deck in the cockpit and on my own more times than not if I am in my own boat. And here is where my Navionics ap loaded onto my Samsung galaxy Note phone comes into its own. I switch it on regularly to check progress and in particular keep it on when navigating channels , reefs or checking depths. No need to run up and down or to have someone yelling out from below. By the way the Navionics does not require a telephone network connection to work. Once loaded onto your phone or pad it works off the phone's inbuilt GPS not the telephone station network. So please be clear when referring to Nav function to distinguish between route planning and position monitoring.

Must agree Cisco, can't believe how good my Aldi tablet is and the Navionics is so cool !

My point is.....I'm trying to navigate a very slim long shallow channel with heaps of current ....and risk my boat. Impossible without this app.

I'm a bit like Jedibrad in that I like stuffing around with charts, but having made the odd one or two nav errors in my Navy days I now use the chart plotter as my primary navigation tool and the charts as a backup. I plan on charts and then put it on the chart plotter
It is too easy when navigating manually to make mistakes, particularly misplotting your position.