notebook computer as gps chart plotter on small boat

20 miles or more positioning error on Google earth options are better than a schoolbook atlas, in a country where paper charts are not available - - - period...

Manie, make sure that the area you want to go to is held in cache on your computer and still works when NOT connected to the internet
Do NOT rely on any chart for accuracy, as you will surely be caught out.... It is an effective aid, compiled from photographs and those can be dated by trying out various display options on the left panel and by marking and saving spots you effectively can have images of key points on-route for reference....

 

Well this is outright the most fun i have had other than searching for "crew"

last weekend when i was sailing of Durban we had a very "interesting" sail. Main down to the 3rd reef, #1 jib up, wind howling at force 6 gusting to force 7, ALL crew down on their knees feeding the fish over the lee rail, the instructor (half my age - fit and able) at the wheel AND this old fart (thinking that he is also 24) playing bowman ala "volvo" (dont forget the 4 knot current coming down from Madagascar) The seas were "confused" at 12ft plus

get the picture?

i was very proud of myself that i could bring the jib down onto the boat and not having to go and swim for it in the Indian ocean

anyway for those of you that know the rhyme TVMDC i cant actually remember it but it is something like "true virgins mostly dont come" or what ever.

So here i am surrounded by vomit trying my best to get a couple of fixes with the handheld compass and actually thinking of working it all out - needless to say that is when you are very thankfull for gps

so now back to "Google Earth 5" mine is out by about 50 yards. I have set my Garmin on "nautical" hence all is in feet and miles. The principal of the sailing academy will give us lashes if we come that kilometers bull with him - he is seriously old school

so here you can decide if you would trust my "calculations" or my computer skills

jeez i can open a new file for maps (right next to crew)

and when i am of to go and drink with Frosty and Mas i can mail then google maps of my intended route:idea:

**** the list is endless

 

how did you get the grid up on g earth?

 

that is a really strange comment, wait until you try navigate with that sort error on the coast , you need to know pretty much where you are all the time, , if not buy a sand yacht no doubt much of you usage will be in Coral country and you dont go nther e without good paper, and good software especially in a plastic boat
after you have a few thou miles under your belts, you will see

 

I wont be navigating that way - just acknowledging the errors that can be found in ALL charts, electronic and paper - depends on where.... Even GPS data can be out (deliberately by USA control - "reds under the bed paranoia" - - and otherwise by atmospherics)

Cook and others successfully navigated without charts - drawing them as they went, and I am a cartographer.... and will to some extent be making my own charts for my own benefit in some areas... I will carry a full set of necessary paper charts on my cruise area....

The grid is set up in "preferences" or something like that in the drop-down menus on the top... as is decimal degrees which is the easiest way to send "waypoints"

 

click view - click grid

i am working thru the "manual" and you can set/personalise the "font" sizes as well - just haven't got there yet

and remember to click on the little "N" at the top of the navigation bar and it automatically turns your current view up 'square" and straight with north at the "top"

please keep posting new findings to this thread it will be a great help to many people

what i am looking for is a "nautical layer" overlay that gives water depths along the coastline as contour lines and general info that could be on normal paper charts.

the stuff found on layers / ocean is very 'touristy" eg. surf beaches and dive spots

so lets hear if you guys come across "sailor" stuff

 

Another overlay that will be super cool is one showing a rose over different locations to show variation and the year eg. 22 deg 58' W (9'W) = 1999

wazzup gents

 

Beers at Frosty - then to Mas

**** all i need is the boat

Durban and hook a left to Mauritius
then stop over at Telok Sebang to see if we can plant trees for Mas's oil refinery
then up to Frosty for a beer and a babe

5400 nm @ 8 kn (maybe 180m/day) = approx 30 days and i am at Frosty's pub

stay a week or so
hair off the chest nonsence

then down south to Mas to learn all about them trees
clean living for a week or three

6000 nm - maybe 40 days

and who cares after that
easy peasy

 

sorry i forgot

Telok Sebrang

maybe i discover my own island
man could get lucky somewhere along the line eh?

 

sheeeeaaat i only see now

territory of bloomin OZ

anyway Mas they were planting Coconut trees once upon a good time

anybody know if the 96? hour OZ rule also applies (see TCP)

have fun

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocos_&_Keeling_Islands

 

Manie, in crossing near the equator you may be slowed to a stop in the doldrums so, if you seek to avoid crossing south in the "roaring 40'S" then follow further north to Diego Garcia (a British possession leased out for a Yank base" then follow up through Maldives, across to the tip of India and Frosty via ******* / Nicobar (India) but check it out as to seasonal winds & weather as there could be lots of "into the wind" stuff if ill-timed or afflicted by climate change....

That is otherwise known as Cocos or Keeling Island a possible waypoint on your route south East towards OZ but remember to have your visas sorted and ownership of your boat fully documented, receipts for materials (donated and given) and photographs of the build with you in it, (sealed in laminated bags) and carry in hidden compartments pure gold as reserve capital... and also be prepared for the 96 hour rule - send a fax from your last port before Aussy then say "progress report from xxxx if possible but sailing boats have difficulty in predictive schedules and if early hang around about 100 miles offshore bloody pathetic bureaucrats can be found in many places - sadly....

Around -10.488 deg S lat, 105.639 deg E lon is Christmas Island - another Australian place with lots of red land crabs.... both have strange histories and culturally diverse populations (aside from teeming bureaucrats).....

 

Hi Mas all in the name of fun

but i do take your comments to heart

anyway i am hoping to illustrate the MANY uses of GE5 and hoping by posting examples that the other ******* will actually get into it and USE the frikken tool.

it is only by usage that you can learn all the many different applications and then to start shearching and asking questions about the things you cant find

i am still looking for a "sailing" overlay that gives SOME of the info on paper charts eg. variation as indicated on the rose and depths contours.

 

have a look at www.fugawi.com best mapping software and you can scan in and import charts .....Not fucawi thats the lost tribe of africa !!!

 

Yes broke-engine, but I use Linux, which makes that app a bit of a problem but can be overcome... and it is quite a good app....

 

the fugawe is most certainly one helluva site
but i see only 10 days free trial - pity

all round seems very good