Online Cruising Guides?

[Pblais]

Jeffery,

I have to agree with you it's grown a lot. Keeping it current is still an issue and verification is the other thing. Collecting all the local knowledge is perhaps it's biggest selling point. It's all the little in's and out's we all really want to know.

[Brandywine]

We agree with the comments on Active Captain! We found it a few months ago and have had fun entering our own 'local knowledge' for the spots we frequent. We recommend that everyone do the same. As we all know, there is no overstating the importance of local knowledge when entering a new area for the first time. Go for it - you know you want to! We all love to share what we know! As for confirming the information, the approach taken by the online "Wiki" sites should work here as well - those of us that frequent a sailing area check the spots we know. If we find errors, Active Captain allows for editing by registered members - just click on the section title and enter the corrected info.

Anyway, just our two bits - we love the site and are SHOCKED to learn, ActiveCaptain, that you're doing it for FREE!

Brandywine

[ActiveCaptain]

Originally Posted by Brandywine

Anyway, just our two bits - we love the site and are SHOCKED to learn, ActiveCaptain, that you're doing it for FREE!

It's comments like this that make it all worthwhile.

And it's staying free. It all came about because we're cruisers ourselves. We knew that there was a huge need in having real data about facilities, anchorages, and local knowledge. We have every guidebook and were continually frustrated that there were no "honest" reviews. The general places like Yahoo and Google were never going to specialize in the things that we boaters wanted. So someone had to do it.

It has been a load of fun. We've met many people - we have a big spare mooring here on the Penobscot Bay that any captain is welcome to use! And we're leaving in the Fall to head back to the Bahamas. I can't wait to try some of the many excellent anchorages that have been entered.

There's so much more in the works too. I want to get an integrated NOAA and buoyweather set of markers into the system before we take off. This will allow you to quickly grab weather forecasts on the map. It'll all be integrated with the phone software too so no more waiting until the NOAA broadcast "comes around" to get to the segment you're interested in. I'd like to have a mode where it checks for an update every X minutes and gives you an alarm when a weather marker has changed that you're interested in. There are just so many things that can be added. It all comes down to getting the best data updated by users like you.

We're also working on some contests with real prizes. The mobile software is giving us some dollars to do things like that. The key to everything though is getting good data on the web site. For free.

[Pblais]

As we all know, there is no overstating the importance of local knowledge when entering a new area for the first time.

Many local places are overstated. But what else is there! If the locals hate it why won't you too? Who better to tell you the dirt than the folks that just can't get out of town? I've added some dirt about Hayes, VA too!

I'm a big fan of the Active Captain or at least all those locals out there telling us all we really wanted to know.

[dacust]

I've been adding some info to your site. I love it, as well.

When are you going to make some of the other categories available? Like restaurants? I got some I'd like to add to the Charleston area.

-dan

[MaDouleur]

I just signed up for activecaptain.com and it looks great. I'm looking forward to using it in action in the fall!

Any plans on making the mobile pieces work with the BlackBerry?

On the web site, I have two comments. (I know you may be limited by what Yahoo! offers...) It would be nice to see things when further zoomed out. It would be understandable if you couldn't have marinas, local knowledge and anchorages when zoomed out. It would also be cool if there were a text listing (for example a list of anchorages along the ICW) that you could click on and then have the map move into position.

Overall and excellent site and I hope to make contributions when I get out on the water!

[ActiveCaptain]

Thanks for the questions.

Dan - I'm about 2" away from removing some of the unimplemented local knowledge marker categories - especially restaurants. It's not because they aren't needed - they are. But it's more that there are starting to become too many blue local knowledge markers. In addition, there are much better resources for finding restaurants, reviews, etc. I'd like to keep the data very boating and cruising specific.

That said, I know all too well from our own cruising that there are times when you pull in someplace and want some ideas about where to eat - walking distance. I'd like to see those suggestions end up in the nearby "inlet" local knowledge markers. We have a ton of inlet markers showing bays, harbors, and the traditional ocean inlets. They are a catchall place to put information about a general location. There is a restaurant field in every marina marker too and many have entries. Still, it makes you search through all the marinas in the area to come across a restaurant. The inlet is the place for it.

The other alternative is to add some filtering for blue markers. I am so afraid to do that because it could easily get confusing when there is suddenly no TowBoat US in the area (because you have it filtered out).

For right now, the local knowledge categories are all things that are very important to boaters (West Marine locations, boat ramps, Wal-Marts, SeaTow, etc). We argue about this all the time though and are always looking for input and suggestions. We're tending to think that the inlet marker is the way to go.


MaDouleur - no plans for Blackberry. It's a really tough environment to develop software for (unlike Palm, Windows Mobile, and Apple) especially for a native (non-Java) application. I'd definitely looking to Symbian/Nokia as a next platform although that would be 1+ years out. I'm also working on getting nautical charts on the web site directly. With a good browser on a Blackberry, that would be a minimal way to get more support. This field and these mobile products change so quickly though - who knows. If enough Blackberry people really want it, it can be done.

The cutoff of markers based on zoom is something that my code does. I could display all 100,000 markers on the world (it would take a while to display) if I wanted. There was a performance and web site degradation issue when allowing too many markers to be displayed. What's up now is a balance to keep the response good for everyone.

Your right about searching for anchorages. The only real way to do it is to use Find and search by ICW mile marker (or by going to a particular location like "Charleston, SC"). There are so many ways that we can use the data. You're right about the need for an ICW list - that wouldn't be all that hard to do.

As a related idea, I have this design for a different non-map-based "interactive guidebook" display for a phone using the web site databases. It's all list based. It would require a GPS with the phone and would work with almost any mobile phone. Basically, as you are moving it would give you the next closest marinas, anchorages, and local knowledge markers forward of your line of travel. It would warn you of upcoming bridges, etc. If you were interested in fuel prices, it would give the marina name and their current fuel price (or whatever you wanted to know about the facility). As you move, it would update the list automatically. Whenever we're on the ICW, we use a couple of the guidebooks to mark our way using post-it notes to keep track of where we are. This would be the 2010 version of that!

Remember that ActiveCaptain is still pretty young (only 1 year old). There are endless things that can be added to it. I'd like to make sure that it stays simple and provides good data. The real backbone of it all is getting people like you to keep their own local areas up-to-date so that everyone can share in the data. Give me the data and I'll provide the tools to assist us cruisers!

[dacust]

Originally Posted by ActiveCaptain

I'd like to see those suggestions end up in the nearby "inlet" local knowledge markers. We have a ton of inlet markers showing bays, harbors, and the traditional ocean inlets. They are a catchall place to put information about a general location. There is a restaurant field in every marina marker too and many have entries. Still, it makes you search through all the marinas in the area to come across a restaurant. The inlet is the place for it.

That works. Makes sense. Thanks!

[Sesame]

Try Active Captain at ActiveCaptain. It has all kinds of useful information posted by boaters themselves complete with Google Earth type maps which show you where everything is. I've only checked it for the US East Coast and Abaco, but would encourage everyone to check it out and add their own information. Unlike many commercial sites, this site includes reviews by real people!

[Sunspot Baby]

Try this link.

Cruisers' Net - Home

George

[Holding Pattern]

This will sound very rude and for that I apologize...

If you want things to be this easy and laid out...don't go.
Half the fun is looking over the charts, various books, guides, talking to other cruisers...
If you want a guide that walks you through and tells you everything...that book would be outdated and useless by the next month. Things change so rapidly...
Skipper Bob, Waterway Guide, maybe Reed's, and the charts are all that you need to make a successful US E Coast run...

Don't look for something that is easy, all-inclusive, and such... do it yourself and your experience will be much richer...

And in the end, if no authority can tell you about the inlet/marina/fuel/landing, etc... just get on ye olde VHF...
"Tow Boat US, Tow Boat US this is XXX looking for local information..."
they will always answer and they know their area...

[Holding Pattern]

ALSO....with water and fuel... just take jerry jugs with you whenever you go ashore... you will never run low on water putting 10-15 gal a day in your tanks.

[Sesame]

Jeffrey,
I agree that some of the areas of the Active Captain charts/maps are getting a little "busy", but I'd hate to lose the valuable "local knowledge" stuff and would even like to see more! Both our personal preferences and our budget put us at anchor most of the time when we are cruising and we rely on our dinghy to get us to various supplies, groceries, etc. Many anchorages have become our favorites simply because we have learned exactly where we can take the dinghy for easy access to a Publix grocery, West Marine, Wally World, etc. For example, I have added "dinghy landings" both SW and N of "Oleta State Park" anchorage in North Miami, FL which give easy access to groceries and other stores. Without that access, this wonderful anchorage is fairly isolated.

Active Captain is a GREAT resource! Many thanks!

[ActiveCaptain]

Originally Posted by Holding Pattern

If you want things to be this easy and laid out...don't go.

Nah - it wasn't rude. After some 15,000 nm (which I consider to be a very beginning of cruising), I also think that "adventure" is a part of cruising. But there is a difference between adventure and being mislead by wrong information.

We've cruised with all of the guidebooks between our home in Maine to Key West and the Bahamas. We always had the latest guides and relied on Skipper Bob's books for anchorages and other ICW information. It was really nice and reassuring. Except when it was wrong. There were too many times when we found ourselves calling information because a phone number was incorrect or the marina had been sold years previously. Too many changes to area resources that we were hoping to explore were mysteriously gone. And too many times when we met someone onshore who said something like, "you really should have known about xyz anchorage or event."

The only way to solve those issues was to get local user help. No one company was ever going to be able to update the information available. And no paper guide was ever going to be without significant errors when it gets printed once a year (if that often). Don't even get me started with the C-Map/Navionics data built into chartplotters and how outdated that is even with quarterly updates!

I'm excited by the response to ActiveCaptain. We've had more than 200,000 updates by users. That's no small amount. I've been shown anchorages that I never knew about and now can't wait to try. I've read many of the marina reviews and have learned that they are extremely accurate. It's interesting that only about 3% of the marina reviews are "negative". But boy, that's an important 3%.

So yes, give me adventure. Just let me sleep well at night at quality anchorages where locals hang out and help my passages become safer. There's a fine line between adventure and safety. I'd like to stay on the good side of safety.

No cruiser ever wanted to have *less* information while underway...

[ActiveCaptain]

Originally Posted by Sesame

I agree that some of the areas of the Active Captain charts/maps are getting a little "busy", but I'd hate to lose the valuable "local knowledge" stuff and would even like to see more! Both our personal preferences and our budget put us at anchor most of the time when we are cruising and we rely on our dinghy to get us to various supplies, groceries, etc.

We anchor out mostly too. And I know exactly what you mean about having information about the nearby area. I'm hoping to see more of that pop up inside the anchorage marker as opposed to creating new grocery store markers. Of course, that might change - but it my current thinking based on feedback that we've gotten over the last year.

The two things that I think are badly needed are 1) an integrated way to get live weather data from markers, and 2) a way to show Local Notice To Mariners (NTM) data. I used to find myself shhh'ing everyone while waiting for my area of interest to come around on the VHF weather broadcast. While I had to listen to the number of degree days from last month, they always seemed to sneak in the part I was waiting for - forcing me to wait for another 5 minutes. Now I tap some Favorites on my phone and get only the part of the forecast I want to see (the same text that is being read on the VHF). That needs to be integrated with the marker data. I'd also like to add an ability where it tells you when the next forecast has been uploaded so you can be alerted of any new weather change.

It used to be that I read our NTM reports every week. Then I stopped receiving them because it was too much to keep up with. As we started cruising, it became difficult to keep up with the entire East coast. So now I don't see any of it. I'd like to put the "notice" back into Notice To Mariners. What better way than integrated with the rest of the markers in ActiveCaptain. I've been working on it for 6 months. It isn't easy because there are some 17 offices that generate that NTM data and they all use different systems and different formats for putting it out - mainly on paper. I'd really like to add nice, bright, yellow markers for those NTM entries eventually.