Navionics charts any good for Bahamas after their 2018 revisions?

[FamilyTrips]

Originally Posted by Jamme

Welcome.

Thanks!

[bbalan]

Free Bahamas satellite and navionics MBTile charts available at TheChartLocker.com.
Cheers,
Bruce

[Cest Bon]

I believe the inaccuracies in Navionics have been corrected. We have cruised the Bahamas for the past 4 seasons using Navionics on our plotters, and Explorer books as backups. I can honestly say that when we use the "sonar contour" overlay in Navionics we find them incredibly accurate. This includes the southern Exumas, Long Island, etc. Even more remote places like Joe's Sound had very accurate depth in Navionics. I do not use the automatic water depth correction based on predicted tides, but use my own "adjustment" based on my observations.

[Jon Hacking]

Originally Posted by Cest Bon

I believe the inaccuracies in Navionics have been corrected. We have cruised the Bahamas for the past 4 seasons using Navionics on our plotters, and Explorer books as backups. I can honestly say that when we use the "sonar contour" overlay in Navionics we find them incredibly accurate...

First, welcome to CF, Cest Bon! We hope we can answer some of your questions, & improve your cruising experience.

I'm glad to hear that Navionics is working for you in the Bahamas, but that's very close to the US, so it's not too surprising.

They are certainly way out in SE Asia, so if/when you venture into new places, you should take them with a grain of salt until you've verified them. They're not perfect everywhere.

Where we are (SE Asia) you can see that Navionics & CMap started with the same cartography, & for the most part, that hasn't been updated. Soundings are usually exactly the same, & in the exact same places, with land contours being equally identical. Sometimes they're offset slightly from each other, & I believe that Navionics is generally closer to the truth in those instances.

But neither of them can hold a candle to satellite imagery, where max errors are on the order of 3m or 10'. Individual coral heads are easily visible, & they're exactly where charted. Coral & sand are easily distinguishable (you can usually see into the water to ~12m/40') so you can choose good anchorages.

IMO, having a combination of the 2, satellite imagery to see the exact layout & to avoid coral, and commercial charts to show depths (although a practiced eye can tell water depths in satellite imagery pretty well) is the best approach.

[pbiJim]

Originally Posted by Jon Hacking

...
We happened to be in SE Asia when I started this project. While we haven't sailed to the Bahamas to check the local charts, I strongly suspect that the charts for the Bahamas are not significantly better than the charts for SE Asia.

Explorer paper charts for the Bahamas are actually pretty good. The upgrade chip for the Garmin chart plotter was also pretty good in the Bahamas, at least as far as the Abacos. That's as far as I went.


Your project seems interesting. I'll have to look into that more, when time allows. Thanks for posting.

[pbiJim]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

I don't know why anybody would choose to use a chart plotter in B'mas...a cruising guide book is all you need....gives way more detailed information, recommended courses, etc....

The upgrade chip for the Garmin had the recommended routes too. It was pretty darn convenient. I did also have paper charts with me. ...and a compass, and a sextant, and a rabbit's foot. ;->


Jokes aside, while I don't like to become dependent on electronics, And I always like to have plan B, I have to admit that the TV screen navigator does open some doors for you & does provide advantages that are not available from the old ways of doing things. That being said, I can also usually get where I need to go on a day trip with a chart, a compass, a wrist watch & little else. Modern toys & traditional skills are both useful. I prefer not to be without either.

[Direstraits]

Originally Posted by neworleansrich

But with all the Garmin BS with their app and the Active Captan debacle, I hope to never buy another Garmin product.

I have been away from sailing for the past 5 years - what has happened to Garmin? I always like their human interface - it was more intuitive than Raymarine (IMHO - not picking a fight here)

What has happened to Garmin - what are the issues?

Thanks
Dennis

[Sailshabby]

IMO, the usual takeover crap, and then fuzzying up customer support. Active Captain used to be a good standalone product, but the owners took the money (good for them, I suppose) and Garmin mucked it up. Bought Navionics but didn’t integrate it into the chart plotters. Bought Vesper, and everything support-wise takes you to some general Garmin website. I was trying to update my Vesper WiFi password the other day and clicked on the manual’s online link to get the software necessary and some generic Garmin “here’s what we sell” page popped up. Only took another three or four clicks and a different Google search to actually get what I wanted.

[Direstraits]

Originally Posted by Sailshabby

IMO, the usual takeover crap, and then fuzzying up customer support. Active Captain used to be a good standalone product, but the owners took the money (good for them, I suppose) and Garmin mucked it up. Bought Navionics but didn’t integrate it into the chart plotters. Bought Vesper, and everything support-wise takes you to some general Garmin website. I was trying to update my Vesper WiFi password the other day and clicked on the manual’s online link to get the software necessary and some generic Garmin “here’s what we sell” page popped up. Only took another three or four clicks and a different Google search to actually get what I wanted.

THANKS....had no idea Garman had fell down the rabbit whole with Alice....bummer

Dennis

[bbalan]

You can download free MBTiles for use with OpenCPN (and other programs) of the Bahamas (Satellite images and Navionics) at


The Chart Locker


Plus many other areas of the Caribbean.

Cheers,
Bruce