marine mapquest

[blt2ski]

is there such a thing as a marine mapquest? ie plug in a marina A, head to marina B how far etc.

marty

[Gary1]

I've had some luck with google maps finding marinas, but the directions they give are by land, not sea.

[Robby Barlow]

Marty, if you don't have a nav program on your pc, you could try chartkit.com who offer free charts (US & part Caribbean) for download and work them, or although maybe not totally legal you can download Maxsea or similar program via emule as well as most charts worldwide.

[jnsailing]

Download a copy of SeaClear II (SeaClear GPS Navigation Software) - it is a freebie navigation program - you can then download charts from NOAA (Office of Coast Survey - NOAA Raster Navigational Charts) - then you can route out your trip and it will give running distance and well as individual leg information - it's about the closest thing to a mapquest for the waterlogged that you'll find

John N.

[deathstare]

it's meant more for mapping out running routes on roads... but it doesn't preclude clicking in the middle of a body of water;

[blt2ski]

My thought was, since I do not have a mapping system on my LT, that possibly there was a marine equal to mapquest that could plot the general course and distance for planning purposes etc. I'll see what I can do with one of the above options. I also do not have a gps or equal either, but what the hay, paper charts, pencils etc work just as they always have, you just have to worry about the programmer inputting etc correctly. I guess one can always blame the computer in that instance, ie my brain..........wait a minute............follow the yellow brick road to oz and ask the wizard for a brain......got it.............

Thank you

Marty

[welshwind]

I use google earth to get approximate distances between two ports on a given body of water. I'm just looking for straight line distances and it, of course, doesn't take into account any reefs or such things. However, it does give it to you in nautical miles if you wish.

[jnsailing]

Marty:

That is exactly what I use SeaClear for - I do my routing on it and I can print out custom sized charts for the area and the trip leg information that I put in for my cockpit book - I keep my real charts down on the chart table just in case - I use a hand held gps to help verify location but I still prefer visual checks on paper charts myself - And SeaClear lets you upload the route to your GPS also so when the admiral is not around now the GPS can nag me that I'm not on course

John N.

[ccriders]

The National Hurricane Center has a distance calculator where you plug in the Lat/Long for two locations and zippo you get the straight line distance between them.

[HoneyDoII]

As was mentioned above, Google Earth will do it for you. I tinker with ideas that way at the office. On Google Earth click on tools/ruler/path and set the parameter to nautical miles. You can even drag and drop your way points to evaluate your options. Maybe in a few years they'll offer "sea-level-view", similar to street-level -view now available, with the sound of the surf and smell of the sea in the air