ICW Chart Software

What charts do you like for your laptop or tablet to navigate on the Intercostal Waterway? Do any of them do a better job of highlighting the route regardless of what scale you are on?

Ted

I like the raster scan from NOAA....

Raster Navigational Charts: NOAA RNCs

I switched from Raster to the NOAA ENC charts and use Polarview. I think OpenCPN now supports ENC format. I just updated for our trip south next week. Make sure you get region 6 for the ICW.

Dave

Any reason for the Vector charts?

On OpenCPN the detail I got was poor when I played around with it...not sure if I could have done better but for some items like bridges, the Vector charts gave no info on clearances, etc...

I find the "weaving on zoom" better on the ENC but it could be PolarView vs OpenCPN. I use OpenCPN with raster charts for planning because it is as better tool. I really like the ENC when traveling in skinny water as the format just seems clearer to me. Our travels never included bridge clearances but that all changes next week.

Dave

I'm a big fan of Polarview.

psneeld said:

I like the raster scan from NOAA...

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I use, depending on the circumstances, both raster and vector charts from NOAA. I like them most especially because they are FREE!

(Well, okay, so I pay for them with my taxes. At least I don't have to pay anything additional to use them!)

Raster or vector makes no difference to me. I prefer a chart without the ICW magenta line. Trying to hold that line can get you into trouble. Following the line can lead to sloppiness in sizing up the situation ahead. It's OK most of the time, but you need to be right 100% of the time.

Funny...a professional mariner for over 35 years and I never even heard of or pad any attention to the infamous "magenta line"....never even had anyone else mention it to me on dozens of deliveries to/from Florida by other pro capts....

Wow....as bad of a rep it is getting..guess I'm glad I was ignorant of it all these years........

Moonstruck said:

Raster or vector makes no difference to me. I prefer a chart without the ICW magenta line. Trying to hold that line can get you into trouble. Following the line can lead to sloppiness in sizing up the situation ahead. It's OK most of the time, but you need to be right 100% of the time.

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Wasn't interested in driving up the magenta line on a plotter. As this will be my first trip up the ICW, felt it would be helpful for daily planning purposes, as a guide to where to look for aids to navigation, and general help if an aid to navigation is missing. The software that I use on my charter boat plotter allows me to display or hide features such as contour lines, depths, bottom compositions, wrecks, etc. Just kind of surprised that in this computer chart age that we live in, there isn't chart software that allows you to toggle the the magenta line on and off as needed.

Ted

O C Diver said:

Wasn't interested in driving up the magenta line on a plotter. As this will be my first trip up the ICW, felt it would be helpful for daily planning purposes, as a guide to where to look for aids to navigation, and general help if an aid to navigation is missing. The software that I use on my charter boat plotter allows me to display or hide features such as contour lines, depths, bottom compositions, wrecks, etc. Just kind of surprised that in this computer chart age that we live in, there isn't chart software that allows you to toggle the the magenta line on and off as needed.

Ted

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Ted, the magenta line can help as a planning tool. There are some confusing areas that you have to pay close attention. Just don't take it as gospel.

Ted - you heading south this year? I agree the magenta line is a nice directional guide and hope we at least keep an artificial one available simply to delineate the path.

Dave

magicbus said:

Ted - you heading south this year? I agree the magenta line is a nice directional guide and hope we at least keep an artificial one available simply to delineate the path.

Dave

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Dave, my new to me boat is waiting for me in Stuart, FL. Will be taking it to Fort Myers to cruise SW FL this winter. Then I will be heading North to Chesapeake bay starting in April.

Ted

The magenta line is not there to tell you where to steer, or how to navigate a particular creek or sound.

It’s there to tell you which creeks, rivers, sounds, and routes make up the AICW.

It’s a guide, kinda like a tipple A tour book.

Use you eyes, and your understanding of how current at bends affects depth. Throw out a bread trail on your GPS, just understand that things may have changed on your return trip.

I actually enjoy the AICW more than cruising the Chesapeake, LIS, and the Maine coast. Guess that makes me a little bit unusual.

I also recommend PolarView with raster charts.

Mike

Boating writer and ICW expert Tom Neale once wrote:
“Years ago when the ICW was younger and dredging more frequent, ICW chart makers generally drew a magenta line to follow the channel. Popular legend was that if you stayed on the Magenta Line you’d have plenty of water. Kind of like that yellow brick road. But the channels of the ICW have been changing every day. So sometimes the magenta line works and sometimes it doesn’t. That’s why we pay careful attention to the fixed and floating aids to navigation. They’re more likely to be in the right place. Sometimes.”

O C Diver said:

Dave, my new to me boat is waiting for me in Stuart, FL. Ted

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Downeast style like you have now?

N4712 said:

Downeast style like you have now?

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My New Boat.

Ted

O C Diver said:

My New Boat. Ted

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Oh, i totally forgot!! I admire that aft pilothouse very much!