GPS and electronic charts question?

Jhooley · #1 (**permalink**) 03-06-2004

I am planning to sail along the north coast of Cuba and then to Jamaica. Does anyone have any experience with electronic charts. No matter where I look I can hardly find exactly what I am looking for, and when I find something close to what I want, it always includes something I dont want and at a crazy price. I expect to pay 150-200 dollars for each electronic charts of the north coast of cuba (including detailed ports and anchorages) and the same for Jamaica. So I am willing to spend about $500-600 for electronic charts. I already figured out that if I buy Britisch Admiralty paper charts, I can expect to spend about $800 dollars for all the charts I need. Another difficulty is that alot of GPS charters only use a specific chart software and dont seem to be universally compatible with other software, and nothing seems to give me completely what I want. If anyone has some advice or is struggling to find the proper charts for their GPS let me know. I am wondering if it is worth the aggrevation. I could just use the GPS and plot off the paper chart, but it wont be that accurate. Let me know. Thanks. James

svGandalf · #2 (**permalink**) 04-10-2004

I`ve got lots of e-charts I`d be happy to share.
email me offline for a complete list.
svgandalf@shaw.ca

cheers!
Ron

casualbb · #3 (**permalink**) 04-17-2004

Hey James,

I used to ask myself these same questions until I started smoking through the ears from frustration.
Finally found a FREE full-featured nav program call SOB (www.digiboat.com.au).
Uses c-map charts, either on CD or the NT+ cartridges from a plotter. You''d probably only need one or two c-map cartridges for all your area (they''re about $200 each, with a 5% discount from digiboat).

Oh and the extra detail available from the c-map vector charts is extraordinary! It leaves the old electronic Admiralty Charts feeling like, well ... paper!

Ben.

MHRitter · #4 (**permalink**) 04-28-2006

I am designing a seminar for Mariners that focuses on the Garmin GPSMAP 76 a hand held chart plotter. see a sample of some of the slides at

http://sankaty.homestead.com/GPS_Power_Point.html