Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands Charts

[mapontikos]

Hello, I'm new to this forum, and have a quick questions about nav charts.

I'm trying to find good quality navigational charts for the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands, but none of the webstores that I've looked at seem to have charts with good detail (better than 80,000 scale, such as NOAA chart-11323).

Is there a good quality chart of that area with the detail given in NOAA or Admiralty charts (paper, RNC or ENC)?

Thanks for your help!

[AnchorageGuy]

You want to use Explorer Charts for the Bahamas and T&C or Wavy Line Charts for the Turks and Caicos. Chuck

[s/v Moondancer]

Explorer charts for the Bahamas but when close to things that go 'bump in the night' you need to have good high light...No chart in the Bahamas and Turks is 100% accurate and the chart plotter charts are worse.

[ActiveCaptain]

Originally Posted by mapontikos

Is there a good quality chart of that area with the detail given in NOAA or Admiralty charts (paper, RNC or ENC)?

For the Bahamas, Explorer is the gold standard. C-Map and Garmin both use Explorer as a base so they're fine too. Explorer produces paper.

For the T&C, I'd look at NV Verlag way before Wavy Lines. I never even heard of Wavy before a thread on CF a couple of weeks ago. I don't see much detail on their charts.

Good examples of the NV charts can be seen here:
Willkommen beim NV-Verlag, Arnis

NV charts come in both paper and BSB format.

How do you want to view these charts? Do you have a particular software program you'd like to use? Is paper what you're ultimately looking for? The answers to those questions will steer the possible products in a big way.

[mapontikos]

Originally Posted by ActiveCaptain

For the Bahamas, Explorer is the gold standard. C-Map and Garmin both use Explorer as a base so they're fine too. Explorer produces paper.

For the T&C, I'd look at NV Verlag way before Wavy Lines. I never even heard of Wavy before a thread on CF a couple of weeks ago. I don't see much detail on their charts.

Good examples of the NV charts can be seen here:
Willkommen beim NV-Verlag, Arnis

NV charts come in both paper and BSB format.

How do you want to view these charts? Do you have a particular software program you'd like to use? Is paper what you're ultimately looking for? The answers to those questions will steer the possible products in a big way.

I didn't see much detail in the Wavy charts, but I will take a look at Verlag charts and compare the two.

I'll want paper and RNC charts. The RNC for planning and GPS tracking, and the paper charts for backup. I use OpenCPN for my computer charts. And if there aren't any RNC charts for those area, I can live with paper charts.

[mapontikos]

Originally Posted by ActiveCaptain

For the Bahamas, Explorer is the gold standard. C-Map and Garmin both use Explorer as a base so they're fine too. Explorer produces paper.

For the T&C, I'd look at NV Verlag way before Wavy Lines. I never even heard of Wavy before a thread on CF a couple of weeks ago. I don't see much detail on their charts.

Good examples of the NV charts can be seen here:
Willkommen beim NV-Verlag, Arnis

NV charts come in both paper and BSB format.

How do you want to view these charts? Do you have a particular software program you'd like to use? Is paper what you're ultimately looking for? The answers to those questions will steer the possible products in a big way.

I haven't seen the NV Verlag charts, but I will look at both and compare them.

I'll RNC charts for planning, navigation, and GPS, and have the paper charts as backup. And if RNC charts don't exist, paper ones will do fine, or ENC (I was raised with paper charts, so the RNC charts feel better with me).

[AnchorageGuy]

The NV Charts are from 2008 and at 80 euros are a bit on the expensive side. I would also have to wonder where the data came from. The Explorer charts cover the Turks and Caicos in as much details as you will get. Unfortunately, the Wavy Line website does not do a good job of showing how detailed the charts are. Like the Lewis's Bob and Jane produce and survey their own charts. If you have the opportunity to view them in person you will see the difference. Neither, I believe are going to work with OpenCPN. We have actually cruised the Turks and Caicos and used wavy Line. Chuck

[mapontikos]

Does anyone have any experience with Navtronics electronic charts (specifically region 3XG) for the Bahamas? Do they give enough detail? I'm thinking of getting the iNavX app, and these are the only electronic charts that will work with it.

Thanks again everyone! And sorry for the double post above.

[s/v Moondancer]

I have Navionics and I have used them between Nova Scotia and Trinidad for a total of 15,000 miles and once you leave the USA and Canada the accuracy decreases:

Bahamas....not reliable in fine detail; good light navigating only in shallow waters

Caribbean Islands...mostly accurate but occasional significant error. The Island of Rodondo was off by 400 yds.

South and Central American coasts are much worse...not accurate enough to make night entries. The Spanish waters entry in Curacao showed me to be in the Hyatt hotel swimming pool, in Puerto Morelos, Mexico it was off by 400 yds and in the offshore islands of Venezuela accuracy was even worse.

These are not errors by Navionics but in the original charts. While Explorer data might be more accurate, in the Bahamas, the Explorer charts all carry a 'Navigate at your own risk' warning!