Mr John on I-Pad Navigation

8/12/2019 Mr John on I-Pad Navigation

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Mr John

On

I-Pad

Navigation


2/11

Chart Plotters are great and many people go zipping all over

the place with them. I was brought up old school and

never really trusted the stuff BUT. That never stopped me

from using one when available.Navigation is a skill, not necessarily an art and certainly not

an exact science. So, we never trust to just one source and

we check the different sources against each other. In most

cases this works but when all the chart data is way out,

when the guy who did the last survey in 1855 had problems

with his Sextant or, more likely, his Chronometer; what do

you do?

I didnt want a Chart

Plotter, so we bought an

I-Pad and downloaded

the Navionics Program

and charts on it.

Its a cheap way to get

Navionics!

We already had Open

CPN with the CM93

charts and we had the

Garmin Blue Charts, so

this rounded off the

collection and gave us

some Back-Up security.


3/11

When I learnt to Navigate, we were into Marc St Hilaire,

except for a few die-hards doing Long By Chron. There

was Omega for the guys that had it all; in Europe we were

doing Decca and in the US they had Loran....But all this

fancy electronic stuff played second fiddle to a good set of

stars!

SO. When I tell you that the I-Pad is the greatest thing

since Sliced Bread, well, you know where Im coming

from.

First time around I was doing the Tuamotus with a Sextant,

there was a great feeling of achievement when it all worked

out.but looking back, I may have just been lucky. Certainly

it was harrowing and nerve wracking and one was always

glad to be well out at sea.


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5/11

In many areas this sort

of presentation will

not tell you very much

about the intended

destination. I like the

idea of knowing in

advance what we are

getting into

ENTER THE SATELITE VIEW

This, in my opinion, tells

me what I really need to

know.

It would of course help

if I knew the depths but

with experience it is

possible to have a good

indication.

Im using the App Google Mapson satellite view and thepre-installed App I-Mapson satellite view.

I have to say; I have not yet found myself any noticeable

distance from where my Blue Dot tells me I am. So,

navigation made easy; all you have to do is drive the blue

dot to where you want to be..

NOT QUITENOT THAT EASY


6/11

No matter what system you use, you have to maintain a

continual watch where you are going and in areas where

there are coral heads you should not be doing anything

without good light, polaroids and the sun behind you.


7/11

The best thing about the

Satellite view is that can

expand your cruising area

and present anchorages

that you would not

otherwise have thought

of using. I spend hours

looking at Google Earth

and by the time I get to

the location Ive been

looking at, I feel I know it;

it makes me feel more

comfortable.

With the information

presented on a Chart

Plotter, I would never

have visited this beautiful

anchorage As it was, I

truly believe we were the

first sailing yacht to have

ever entered this lagoon.

In this age of overcrowded

anchorages, the satellite

view can give you an edge.


8/11

My system for navigation

by Google is as follows:

I look at the overview withLat / Long grid and pick off

the waypoints I want to

use

Interpolation may be

necessaryonce I have my

Google route planned, I

transfer that to Mapsource

Mapsource is the Garmin

program and here I can

view it on the Garmin

Blue Charts. I can also

save it as GPX and

transfer it to Open CPN to

view / check on CM93

At this stage, you may notice that I have checked this route

on three independent systems and if all three agree that we

are not going over or close to a reef.. Then we are in

with a chance!


9/11

So, having done those three

things and having put the

route in my Garmin GPS, I

now make a new route,

going on the same courses

and put it into Navionics on

the I-Pad.

This latter route is only a guide but should not disagree with

what is in my GPS. NOW we are ready, we follow the course

line on the GPS whilst in the cockpit we monitor the

position on Navionics whilst occasionally flipping over to

Google to make sure our blue dot isnt getting close to

anything. We are not glued to any system at this point and

most of our attention is on reading the water ahead and

keeping a good lookout.You should in general

route from Anchor to

Anchor or from Berth to

BerthI have to admit thatI dont do this in reef

navigation

When Im looking for that

little gap in the reef or weaving between bommies I like to

have my full attention on where we are going and a

continual eye on the depth.


10/11

All this electronic stuff is a guide but it can really help.

Once you get started you can go into it in more depth, you

can play with the cacheand have the Satellite view even

when off line. Not connected to the internet. Rememberthat you getting more accurate data when on line

Then there are KapCharts where many satellite shots

have been spliced together to make a seamless chart.. This

is the future, where you will be able to switch between the

satellite view and your chart at your plotter without being

connected to the internet. Its here already but as yet it is

limited.

Right now Im happy driving my Blue Dot around on my I-

Pad, which, in my opinion, has paid for itself many times

over.


11/11

There are lots of other features you can use the I-Pad for..

I have a great tide program at the press of a button

The World Tides App

With the right bit of kit you can even have your AIS sent by

Blue Tooth to your I-Pad. There is very little it wont do..

Considering the cost of an I-Pad against the cost of a Chart

Plotter, Id go for the Pad every time. It encourages you to

do careful navigation No one should be fooled into

thinking they can buy a chart plotter and just drive down

the line, thats one line on one bit of kit. If you do that youllcome to grief someday for sure..

Enjoy your navigation and have a safe arrival.

John Wolstenholme

www.yachtmrjohn.blogspot.com

Mr John on I-Pad Navigation

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