We just bought a
boat in Fla of Nov last year and are cruising the
Bahamas for a year or two. The
boat had a
Raymarine FL80C installed and I wanted a backup. After looking at various portables in the $400 to $700 range, I decided to search the Apps in my iPad.
I came up with iNavX for $49 and a
Navionics chart of the
Bahamas for #10 bucks.
I installed them and they worked great. Easy to use.
After about an hour out of Stuart, Fla, I quit using the Raymairine and have not turned it on for 3 Months. I use my iPad on my flybridge all the time.
As a backup to my backup, I purchased MacENC for my Macbook. It appears to be the same basic program and
charts as iNavx. They both use
Navionics charts.
I only have one problem and concern. The Navionics charts of the Bahamas are not detailed enough. I used
Nobeltec and
MaxSea on my other boats and they were far better.
Last week, I was traveling and following another boat from Stanial Cay.
Our charted course had a min of 13ft of
water. He got on the
radio and said he was stopping because the dept had dropped to 5 ft. He was using a
Raymarine chart plotter which must have been using Navionics charts, because the showed the same info as mine.
The paper Explorer Charts clearly showed a sand bar in our path.
Another poster said somewhere else, that some charts are better in different locations in the world and Explorer Charts are the Gold Standard in the Bahamas.
I agree that Explorer Charts are the best in the Bahamas. I used
Nobeltec in the Bahamas for three years and never found an error or problem.
I read that Jeppensen has the exclusive on the Explorer digital charts.
I've made up my mind, when I get back to the States, the Raymarine's are going to the junk pile and a Computer System running Nobeltec is going to be installed.
Also, I just read that Jeppensen in releasing an iPad app for marine
Navigation. I'm on they release notification and will install the first day I'm on good wi-fi here in the bahamas.
To get more info, here's the link
Charts for Mobile Devices | Light Marine | Jeppesen