Coastal Explorer for British Columbia

[JDCAVE]

My version of Coastal Explorer came with the purchase of the boat in 2013. It was loaded with all the NOAA charts, raster and vector, as well as the CHS charts for British Columbia. The CHS charts would have retailed for about $600 Canadian, so I was not in a hurry to update. Twisted Tree mentioned that Coastal Explorer has raster and vector charts for Canada for $99 each US a total of $266 Cdn. It allows updates for 2 years (if you time your purchase, that's 3 cruising summers). The other issue, is I have no internet access on the boat and the computer is 12 VDC, so I had to cobble together a power source in order to update at home.

Updating was very easy, both the software and the charts and the CE raster charts for Canada are basically the same as the CHS raster charts. I'm not sure about the vector (ENCs) but they seem complete.

So if you are looking to upgrade your chart plotter, CE is superb in my opinion. Very intuitive to use and plotting routes takes seconds to do.

 

[Alaskan Sea-Duction]

I uploaded CHS charts (vector and Raster) with my Coastal Explorer. I love the program, however the CHS charts are for 1 year, I believe unless that has changed. I got a message stating my license had expired for CHS. The folks told me I don't really need to update, but some of the functions like tides and currents. I will be updating the Raster side....

 

[dhays]

I uploaded CHS charts (vector and Raster) with my Coastal Explorer. I love the program, however the CHS charts are for 1 year, I believe unless that has changed. I got a message stating my license had expired for CHS. The folks told me I don't really need to update, but some of the functions like tides and currents. I will be updating the Raster side....

Do you also carry something like http://www.portsandpasses.com/ as well as the tide and current info in CE?

 

[JDCAVE]

I uploaded CHS charts (vector and Raster) with my Coastal Explorer. I love the program, however the CHS charts are for 1 year, I believe unless that has changed. I got a message stating my license had expired for CHS. The folks told me I don't really need to update, but some of the functions like tides and currents. I will be updating the Raster side....

Were these the CHS ones or the CE version of them? I believe the CE charts I uploaded allowed updates for 2 years but perhaps that's not correct?

 

[RCook]

Do you also carry something like Ports and Passes as well as the tide and current info in CE?

I've always carried Ports and Passes for BC in the past, but now that I'm using CE, I don't seem to need it. The graphic displays of tides and currents are really nice.

 

[JDCAVE]

Were these the CHS ones or the CE version of them? I believe the CE charts I uploaded allowed updates for 2 years but perhaps that's not correct?

I checked my license and it's for a year. Sorry for the misinformation. Still, if you update just prior to expiry you get 2 years of cruising with updates in the same calendar year.

 

[Alaskan Sea-Duction]

Do you also carry something like Ports and Passes as well as the tide and current info in CE?

Yep, I have 2017 edition and I use it.

 

[dhays]

I've always carried Ports and Passes for BC in the past, but now that I'm using CE, I don't seem to need it. The graphic displays of tides and currents are really nice.

Another plus for CE then. P&P is a great publication but if the same information could be had off CE that would be good. I do like the fact that I can easily look ahead to any date and any location to see the tide/current situation for planning.