Stuff That Works is our look at tools, software and hardware that has worked well for us on our trip. Like in previous posts, we don’t claim to be experts. Nor have we tried a wide variety of tools, software or hardware. This is our sample size of one, one boat that has sailed from Victoria, Canada to New Zealand. This is what has been working for us. Search the site for #stuffthatworks or #stuffwelike to find more posts on this topic. Now on to today’s topic: charts.
First, it’s hard not to talk about charts without considering chartplotters. One should consider them simultaneously. It’s a bit of a chicken and egg situation. Which comes first–chartplotters or charts? For a nerd like me, it’s easy to look at chart plotters and get caught up in the various features each has and forget that they are only as good as the charts on them or the charts one can get for them. One needs to consider the availability of charts, their cost and the quality of those charts when considering a chartplotter.
Cambria did not have a chartplotter when we bought her. The previous owners used a combination of paper charts and software running on a laptop. We planned to do something similar but then the radar stopped working. It was old. It wasn’t worth repairing. We definitely wanted a working radar for the trip. When adding a new radar we decided to put in an MFD (a Multi Function Display). An MFD, as the name suggests, can display a variety of information. We use ours to display radar and charts. Our MFD came with charts that covered the west coast of Canada and the U.S. We did not buy additional charts for it. More on our reasoning for this decision, below.
I am splitting the discussion of charts and chartplotters into two posts. I probably shouldn’t be. As I mentioned, they should be discussed simultaneously but I’m splitting the topics for practical reasons. I have limited time to write so by splitting the topics I will at least get something posted in a timely fashion. Just remember that charts and chartplotters go hand in hand. Here’s what has been working for us.
Paper Charts
First let’s consider paper charts. We don’t use them. We have some. They are stored down below in case we should ever need them but the chances of that are unlikely. The reasons we don’t use paper charts are:
- they are getting harder and harder to source.
- they are expensive
- they are difficult to store. If we were to have paper charts onboard that give the same detail as our electronic charts, I don’t think there’d be room for us on the boat!
We keep a select few small scale charts on Cambria. This means that they show a very large area but in limited detail. They would get us across an ocean to a destination but there wouldn’t be much detail once we arrived. If we were to use them, we would successfully navigate to a place but would have to complete the final miles to our destination very slowly and carefully or we would use our radio to call for assistance in order to complete the final miles. So, no paper charts. This leaves us with electronic charts.
Garmin Charts
As I mentioned above, we bought a new Garmin radar and MFD/chartplotter. I’ll write more on why we chose a Garmin later. For now, I’ll consider the available charts for it. There are lots. There are charts available that cover all the areas we have sailed or plan to sail on this trip. We don’t have them. The Garmin unit came with charts for the west coat of Canada and the U.S. When we got to Mexico we considered buying Garmin’s charts for the chartplotter but chose not to. The charts from Garmin were very expensive. Instead, we bought charts for our iPads and laptops for a fraction of the cost of the Garmin charts. The data used to create electronic charts in Mexico is old. It is out of date. That same data is used by all chart makers. It didn’t seem worth it to buy the Garmin charts when they were based on out of date data.
Though the data was better in French Polynesia and beyond, we again decided not to buy the Garmin charts. As was the case in Mexico, we could get charts for our iPads and laptops for much cheaper. It’s all based on the same data so it didn’t seem worth it to spend 5x as much for the Garmin charts.
Navionics
We run Navionics software on our iPads. It works well for us. So far, the charts have been accurate for the areas in which we’ve sailed. Charts are based on an annual subscription by country or region. This means that we can have the most up-to-date charts when we need them and then stop the subscription when we move on. So far, we have purchased subscriptions for:
- Canada/U.S.
- Mexico
- South Pacific
- New Zealand
Additionally, Navionics charts have a social component. Other cruisers can add information about anchorages or other points of interest. These can be downloaded when we have a good internet connection. Of course, we have to be cautious when reading the comments people add to a place but generally we find them very helpful.
OpenCPN
OpenCPN is the charting software we run on our laptops. It does not come with charts. They have to be downloaded separately but generally, we can purchase and download the charts through the OpenCPN interface. Here’s what we have used so far.
- U.S.
- Mexico
- French Polynesia
- New Zealand (includes Tonga, Fiji and New Caledonia)
The U.S. does not charge for their charts which is awesome. We downloaded the official U.S. charts through the OpenCPN app. Of all the charts we’ve used, I found the U.S. charts the easiest to download, setup and keep up to date.
For Mexico and French Polynesia we purchased charts from O-Charts. They were accurate and affordable. Charts of Mexico cost 69 Euros (100 CAD/75 USD) which is one of the more expensive chart packages. The French Polynesian charts were 29 Euros (42 CAD/32 USD).
New Zealand, like the U.S., does not charge for their charts though we had to buy an S-63 permit to use them. The process of buying and installing an S-63 permit was confusing but figuring it out was worth the effort1. We bought the S-63 permit through O-Charts for 12.50 Euros (18 CAD/14 USD). New Zealand updates their charts bi-weekly. Each fortnight, I receive an email with a link to the updates. I use the link to download the updates to my laptop. From there I can install the updates through OpenCPN’s interface.
Additionally, New Zealand charts cover Tonga, Fiji and New Caledonia. We found the Tongan charts were slightly off, meaning objects were several meters off from where they were shown on the charts. Usually, this wasn’t a problem but it did necessitate verifying the routes we made by looking at them on satellite images.
Satellite Images: The ChartLocker
Satellite images are a game changer. As I mentioned above, they are great for checking the accuracy of our charts. Additionally, they were vital when navigating through areas of coral like in the Tuomotus. Within the coral atolls there were many coral heads–bommies–rising from the bottom. Some bommies were charted, others were not. Thankfully, bommies show up on satellite images. We use OpenCPN to display satellite images. Typically, I would create a route using a chart in OpenCPN. Once the route was made, I would switch to display it overlaid on a satellite image. I would then adjust the course if needed.
The Chartlocker is our source for satellite images. It’s fantastic! Bruce Balan is the site’s creator. He and his wife are currently cruising in French Polynesia. Bruce started the site as a place to share the satellite images he created for his own cruising. I believe it has grown from there. There are images covering much of the globe. So far we haven’t needed to look any further than the Chartlocker for satellite images and haven’t needed to make our own. It’s a great resource for learning to use satellite images and Bruce has a video showing how to use OpenCPN which I found helpful.
There you have it–the charts that have gotten us from Canada to New Zealand. In a future post I will write about the software and hardware we use with the charts.
Links-Resources
Here are links to the charts I wrote about in this post. I have included links but do your own research.
O-Charts instructions for installing S-63 licenses
- I used the instructions at both the NZ chart page and O-Charts page to figure out how to at the permits and charts. It took some trial and error to figure it out. ↩︎
Cormacks On Cambria 
Great post, Rob, and very timely! As we are starting from a blank slate again, I have been thinking a lot about charts, chartplotters, and alternatives. I wasn’t that fond of the B&G Vulcan (slow, low-res screen) that we had on Callisto, and have been looking closely at Garmin. The boat we sailed from Hawaii had Garmin and I quickly grew to like it, and it worked flawless for 21 days.
I’m considering building a Pi to run OpenCPN on, so we have an always-on solution at the nav desk, but I suspect we might just use a tablet or laptop more for actually planning routes; we’ll see.
I’m glad to hear that the choice of charts on Navionics and OpenCPN is working well for you, as opposed to adding them to the plotter.
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Thanks for the kind words, Shawn.
I’m not sure I’d recommend the Garmin plotter or not. It works fine for what we use it for. I don’t have much experience with other plotters so can’t really compare it to anything else. Unfortunately, we don’t have it fully working with our older tech. You will recall that we tried to get it to _talk_ to our NMEA 0183 stuff when we were anchored with you in the Broken Group. I haven’t made any progress since then. Getting it fully connected is on the to-do list but there are always other priorities.
I had a Pi running OpenPlotter before we left Canada. It was a fun project but I didn’t install it on Cambria. I had planned to but that was before the old radar quit. Once we had an MFD we didn’t need it. We have plenty of redundancy with the MFD, 2 laptops, 2 iPads and 2 iPhones. I still love the Pi. I just don’t have one on board right now.
I’ll put the finishing touches on my piece about chartplotters and get that posted soon.
I’m enjoying seeing your progress on your Instagram feed–well done!
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Thanks, Rob. I look forward to actually putting things back on the boat, after months of tearing it apart! I also like the Pi, but with the convenience of tablets and laptops, wonder how much it would get used. Lots to think about.
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