NGA Sailing Directions, URLs for direct downloads

[bigoceans]

No luck on renaming the .exe to zip or rar... Argh!

[sailingdog]

BTW, IIRC, that trick only works if they were using a Zip file self-extracting file. If they're using some other compression algorithm, I doubt it'll work.

Originally Posted by bigoceans

No luck on renaming the .exe to zip or rar... Argh!

[bigoceans]

Ah ok, I figured that might be the case about the .exe.. Anyway, thanks Tradewind, all sorted now!

I had another question - Someone mentioned there are big raster based pilot charts of the South Atlantic from NOAA, or NGA, which you could actually download and get printed for navigation. I have no idea if this is true, or what the implications are, but that's one I've been told. Can any Americans enlighten me on the subject?

nick

[camaraderie]

bigO...pilot charts are planning charts...not navigational charts. There are pilot chart links here...just enter into search...and you will find many that have been added in the last week or so.
If it is REAL navigational charts you are looking foor, then I am not aware of any free ocean charts BUT the entire USA coast and PR and the USVI are available for both viewing and download for free. Here's a pdf of what you can get for free:
http://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/mcd/c..._10_Jan_06.pdf

[hellosailor]

Nick-
"I have no idea why the NGA make it so difficult"
Very simple, really. I had a discussion with someone there some years ago and asked why they were doing something in a particularly cumbersome way. I was told "that's because we're a government agency and we are here to serve the military and other agencies not civilians" and the way it was said made it clear that the huge civilian presence (and burden) was something they had a great distaste for.
If NGA (which really should be called NGSIA or NGIA, but no, they have to compete with the other 3-letter agencies) had their way, they'd cut off access to everyone who wasn't coming from a .mil or .gov address. There's a lot of that mindset in too many agencies, who forget the damned hoi-poloi pay the bills.

[bigoceans]

Ok, well that clears things up for me re navigation charts. As I said, someone informed me the NGA kept high resolution (45mb images) which showed navigational routes, wind statistics, and a lat+long grid which one could navigate on. This was after I told him I was going to spend $90 on gnomic charts for the South Atlantic. Clearly I was excited about the prospect of spending that $90 on something else... However, you seem to have burst that myth - I was somewhat suspect myself.

As for the NGA. Well, that seems like pretty childish behaviour - Intentionally making things difficult. In fact, packaging up PDF's in .exe's would be more work for the agency... If they had any sense at all, they'd simply dump everything in a public FTP folder, and let the public scavenge the bits without complex drop down menus, installers and other oddities. This would be far simpler for everyone concerned.

nick

[halyardz]

Camaraderie, many thanks for the links. I too have struggled a bit with the gov sites and decided to just grab the Explorer Chartbook set for our Feb 07 run from FLA to Abacos.

[Plumper]

This is very handy.

Thanks
Gaz

[camaraderie]

Halyardz...you are welcome...and you got the RIGHT charts!
Some info on the crossing here:
http://www.sailnet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23916

[blowinstink]

This is fantastic!

I wanted to point out that the links to the Carribean Sea I & II are both not working. If I understood the root website well enough, I would offer new links, but unfortunately I am not able to yet.