Just forget about your normal ideas of preserving
storage space and wasting it.
Because you are often outside of
internet range, download every
single chart for every region you might find yourself in. Get the big open
water charts, the coastal charts, the harbor and approach charts, all covering the same region. Download every available file you can.
I used to think the way you are thinking from a background with
computers. I was just changing to these new electronic charts from paper. Well, I missed a harbor chart, an open
water chart and an entire region of charts. 2 separate VERY scary moments.
Not having an open water chart was annoying, having to string together harbor and approach charts.
Entering a harbor with no chart was very scary.
Changing regions and running out of charts entirely was also very scary.
Imagine you have to divert for a mechanical or
medical emergency and you didn’t download the chart for the shortest
route.
Get all of them. Every
single one.