Bahamas/Caribbean Charts To BUY For OpenCPN

[rgleason]

NVCharts website has Carribean Charts for between $70-100 us and they can be downloaded, but it is difficult to determine exactly what you have selected and the area included, as the popup covers the chart and the exact area is not shown or highlighted.

[rgleason]

I was hoping to find some charts for a sail from Jolly Harbor Antiqua to Vero Beach, FL Ap5-Ap?(12-20).

I have a bunch of older charts of the Carribean which are good for Cuba and the Windward/Leeward Islands, plus there are the current NOAA CG07rnc/enc for

• Bahamas
• Cuba
• Puerto Rico
• Virgin Islands

but Haiti, Dominican Republic or Turks and Caicos are not included. So I think I am looking for better charts for Dominican Republic and Turks and Caicos.


What I did:
1. Sign up for a Chartworld Account to complete this account I need to register with o-charts for an ID and permit which I have not done yet.

2. Go to Chartworld Shop, Set it to 3 months. Find the search bar at the bottom left. Search for "Caicos" and "Turks" and find
GB303907 Pass Mayaguana Turks Caicos Scale/Usage: Coastal
GB303908 Pass Turks Caicos Dominican Rep Scale/Usage: Coastal
GB401441 Turks Islands Scale/Usage: Approach
GB301450 Turks Island & Mouchoir Passage Scale/Usage: Coastal

These charts are between $19 -$23 eur Which type of chart format "direct enc" or "S-63"? I guess it is S-63 http://o-charts.org/shop/index.php?i...gory&id_lang=4


That is about $$80 and I am wondering if there is a set of charts somewhere for the whole string including Windward & Leeward Islands, BVI, Turk & Caicos, DR, Haiti, Cuba & Bahamas. Seems like a lot for one trip.

This is just a tentative route, without too much thought about when we stop, just picking a decent scenic route between the islands, however we were thinking of sailing overnight sometimes and then stopping at some islands for a day/night. I thought this would be a more interesting route than a straight sea passage. Since there are some Caribbean pros out there what are your experiences and suggestions for routes & charts? Climatology shows an easy favorable downwind trip (10-15 knots). Recent gribs/routings show similar. Whatever charts I get, I'll need to get them and set them up today or tomorrow. Thanks.

[flyingfin]

Just buy a good chartplotter and the cards you need for navigation. Marine GPS are designed for the environmental conditions (heat, humidity, wet fingers) inside and on the deck of vessels.

Your Open CPN and laptop should be used for planning while relaxing in the cabin or at a restaurant on shore.

PS
keep paper charts close to the helm while in the Bahamas. You cant beat Harry Klines hand drawn charts alongside Google Earth for the real skinny waters

[phiggins]

Navionics charts are well known to be unreliable in the Bahamas, and not

You can easily check how accurate a chart is by using GE2KAP to overlay it onto Google Earth and see how they align.

[phiggins]

Let me give you an example. In the first attachment is the Navionics chart as displayed on SasPlanet. You want to know how accurate it is so you run GE2KAP overlay the Sasplanet map onto GE (second attachment), check the alignment. If its off you adjust it and create a new corrected chart for OpenCPN (third attachment).

[rgleason]

Thanks Phil. The links were very helpful and I found the charts and kaps good enough for my purposes. Now in Vero. There is more water between Islands than I realized, and the coral heads seem to be more present in the charts than they really are, although we took only very safe routes.

[zstine]

OP here. 6 weeks until I head south and I didn't want to screw around anymore so I just paid about $270 for the maptech DVDR300, which covers all the windward and leeward, but not Bahamas... So still looking for that.

Unfortunately, I copied the charts into the OpenCPN directory and no-go. Maptech said they would work, but when I got them they say BSB-5 , which may not be readable by OpenCPN. I've emailed Maptech. we'll see.....