digital charts for DR, Turks and Caicos, and Bahamas

[SV Demeter]

I have CM93 and am using it with Open CPN but I don't have good coverage of DR, specifically harbor scale coverage. Same for the Turks & Caicos and Bahamas. We are in St. Martin now with plans to head west through Puerto Rico, DR, Turks then Bahamas. I have the explorer books for the Bahamas. Would like good electronic charts for these areas. Suggestions?

[Group9]

Garmin charts of that area are supposed to incorporate the Explorer Charts, and from what I have seen, pretty much do so.

I was pretty happy with my Garmin chartplotter on my last cruise to the Exumas. Matching them to my Explorer Chartbooks, it really did look like they used the Explorer Charts for data.

[SV Demeter]

Originally Posted by Group9

Garmin charts of that area are supposed to incorporate the Explorer Charts, and from what I have seen, pretty much do so.

I was pretty happy with my Garmin chartplotter on my last cruise to the Exumas. Matching them to my Explorer Chartbooks, it really did look like they used the Explorer Charts for data.

Im hoping for something I can download and use with Open CPN. My garmin plotter is an old 478 model that takes cards that I doubt I can find here in St Martin. Will look on Garmin website.

[colemj]

There are raster versions of the old Maptech versions of Explorer charts, along with all the other areas you mention. Many cruisers have these, so ask around locally. We used the older Explorer raster charts for two years in the Bahamas and did not find any errors throughout the Abacos, Exumas, Long Island, Cat Island, Eluthera, Jumentos/Raggeds and all points in between those.

Mark

[svHyLyte]

Originally Posted by Group9

Garmin charts of that area are supposed to incorporate the Explorer Charts, and from what I have seen, pretty much do so.

I was pretty happy with my Garmin chartplotter on my last cruise to the Exumas. Matching them to my Explorer Chartbooks, it really did look like they used the Explorer Charts for data.

Group9--Did you use Garmin's Tides predictions tab on your chartplotter and if so, how accurate did you find them?

[cagney]

Demeter
www.nv-charts.com - nvcharts cover the area you are asking about.
I think that these charts are in a BSB 3 format, working directly with OpenCPN. Otherwise they are in the BSB 4 format and works through the nv-charts plugin(Win only).

The quality ought to be OK, judging from nv:s Caribbean and North European charts I have seen.

Thomas

[Group9]

Originally Posted by svHyLyte

Group9--Did you use Garmin's Tides predictions tab on your chartplotter and if so, how accurate did you find them?

I never used it. I used the tide tables in the Explorer Charts and found them to be very accurate. And, the tides are really important in the Bahamas if you have any draft. I frequently planned harbor entrances, and other routes with the tides in mind. It freaked me out a little at first to go into places at high tide that I couldn't get out of or pass through at low tide, but I got used to it.

[svHyLyte]

Originally Posted by Group9

I never used it. I used the tide tables in the Explorer Charts and found them to be very accurate. And, the tides are really important in the Bahamas if you have any draft. I frequently planned harbor entrances, and other routes with the tides in mind. It freaked me out a little at first to go into places at high tide that I couldn't get out of or pass through at low tide, but I got used to it.

Thanks for the Note. We too are using the Explorer Chart Tide Tables but recently bought the Garmin Chip that covers the Bahamas and was wondering if the tides predictions are/were any good/reliable as they seem to be for South Florida. We are preparing for another trip so I just up-dated our Explorer Charts but was disappointed to discover that the tide tables in the "new" chartbooks only cover 2012 and 2013, which of course, will only be useful for our Spring cruise this year. (Oh for the day's of Reed's eh?)

One frustrating aspect of the Garmin implementation of the Explorer Charts is that if an area is covered by NGA CHarts at a particular scale, the Explorer Charts are over-written by the NGA Charts which are less accurate/reliable; and, there does not seem to be a way to disable the NGA Charts to avoid the effect.

FWIW...

[Group9]

Originally Posted by svHyLyte

Thanks for the Note. We too are using the Explorer Chart Tide Tables but recently bought the Garmin Chip that covers the Bahamas and was wondering if the tides predictions are/were any good/reliable as they seem to be for South Florida. We are preparing for another trip so I just up-dated our Explorer Charts but was disappointed to discover that the tide tables in the "new" chartbooks only cover 2012 and 2013, which of course, will only be useful for our Spring cruise this year. (Oh for the day's of Reed's eh?)

One frustrating aspect of the Garmin implementation of the Explorer Charts is that if an area is covered by NGA CHarts at a particular scale, the Explorer Charts are over-written by the NGA Charts which are less accurate/reliable; and, there does not seem to be a way to disable the NGA Charts to avoid the effect.

FWIW...

The Explorer Chartbooks always won with me in a dispute with the Garmin Charts and if my boat was moving, my Explorer Chartbook was in the cockpit with me.

[MarkJ]

I have what you need for Bahamas. PM on the way.