Newish user -- sat photos and ActiveCaptain

[sailingharry]

I've long used the free O on Android for simple on-the-go looking at things (I use a chart plotter for nav). I finally did a full install of it on a laptop, and am starting to play with it (again, armchair nav/planning -- I'm surely not going to set my laptop up in the cockpit! LOL). I've come to two things I think are not possible, but would love to be shown how to do it.


First, sat photos. My chartplotter (Furuno) and Navionics (both cell -- if you pay -- and laptop) have a wonderful hybrid view that shows charts to the water's edge, and then satellite photos on land. This is wonderful when trying to plan shore access for hikes and such, and (even more importantly) finding an anchorage that has a dog-appropriate beach. I gather that there are folks who have painstakingly put together images as a "chart" choice, primarily in the Pacific where charts are awful and water clarity makes pictures useful. Has anyone done this for the US East Coast (Chesapeake, primarily)? And has anyone done them that merge with the NOAA charts, so I can see beaches and houses and roads while also seeing water depths? It seems to me the commercial guys didn't download individual files and then carve out the shoreline for the entire world -- it has to have been done in some programmatic fashion that O could replicate.


Second, ActiveCaptain, Argo, NoForeignLand, etc. At least some of these have open API's into their data. It would be great if I could use O for my planning, and not have to go to one site to get reviews and then open O to create my route. Does O have any kind of link to (or even native?) destination review tool?


I'm doing this in part because I can see O becoming a primary nav tool in my future. My current chart plotter (Furuno) is old, but a solid performer and integrates with my radar (duh). Since O doesn't support my current radar, moving to O will be a major expense (radar and rugged hardwired display at the binnacle are better than $2K, plus everything else needed). So this is a baby step to start to learn the features.

[barcoMeCasa]

Sat2chart can create hybrid charts , from navionics anyway



https://svsoggypaws.com/files/presen...t%20Making.pdf
https://www.gdayii.ca/Home.php

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCDP...&index=1&t=30s

I use zoom 10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19, sometimes 20. The lower zooms files aren't that big compared to the higher zooms like 19 or 20.

Though TBH google maps will let you download areas of satellite images, for land based stuff i use that. Imho satellite images in Opencpn are far more useful of the water. Bing seems to be the best most of the time. If the water is clear it's very useful for anchorages to see where the sand & rocks are. Also useful to see where boats tend to anchor & people leave dinghies and to check the accuracy of other traditional charts. Opencpn split screen view with satellite images on one side & a chart on the other can be good.
I set up chart groups for the different sources so push a number button to jump between cm93/satellite images in the display.
Planning I use noforeignland & navily plus google maps 3d view then do a route later
noforeignland lets you download areas, navily charges for this.

[rgleason]

Try Squiddio_pi for POI and get a free account and contribute.

[sailingharry]

Originally Posted by barcoMeCasa

Sat2chart can create hybrid charts , from navionics anyway

I use zoom 10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19, sometimes 20. The lower zooms files aren't that big compared to the higher zooms like 19 or 20.

Though TBH google maps will let you download areas of satellite images, for land based stuff i use that. Imho satellite images in Opencpn are far more useful of the water. Bing seems to be the best most of the time. If the water is clear it's very useful for anchorages to see where the sand & rocks are. Also useful to see where boats tend to anchor & people leave dinghies and to check the accuracy of other traditional charts. Opencpn split screen view with satellite images on one side & a chart on the other can be good.
I set up chart groups for the different sources so push a number button to jump between cm93/satellite images in the display.
Planning I use noforeignland & navily plus google maps 3d view then do a route later
noforeignland lets you download areas, navily charges for this.

Wow, making my own charts! Sounds a bit intimidating, but do-able.


Getting Navionics sonar chart on OpenCPN is awesome!


Planning using another app is how I do it now that my Navionics subscription is expired (getting ActiveCaptain has been getting harder and harder, and more and more expensive!). Sure would be nice to integrate them! Currently, we use ActiveCaptain web site (that still works), then pull up Google Earth to assess shore access, then double check with O (used to use that on my phone, but my recent upgrade broke O).


In our part of the world, satellite images for nav are... useless! I've attached an image of a harbor we used to go to with our old (shallower) boat. Lots of 3-4' deep water, and a narrow channel. Compare Google Earth to Navionics, and see which shows where to go!


So I gather that if I make Sat2Chart, I have to make lots of charts at lots of zooms, and save them. Probably take a bit of time, but winter is coming and what else will I do. The question is, once I've done that, is there a sharing community? If I make up charts for the entire Chesapeake Bay, where do I put them so the next guy doesn't have to?

[barcoMeCasa]

Originally Posted by sailingharry

So I gather that if I make Sat2Chart, I have to make lots of charts at lots of zooms, and save them. Probably take a bit of time, but winter is coming and what else will I do. The question is, once I've done that, is there a sharing community? If I make up charts for the entire Chesapeake Bay, where do I put them so the next guy doesn't have to?

The downloading takes forever, like days for a big area, the data drip feeds in no matter how fast a web connection you have.

There's a few around that share the files on their own websites, very good of them. Terry's topics & soggypaws from memory. But not sure of a shared place to upload, ends up as a load of data.

[sailingharry]

Originally Posted by rgleason

Try Squiddio_pi for POI and get a free account and contribute.

I took a look. A couple questions.


* This sounds like perfection (with the issue of data size, below) I found the plugin (after two trips down source file links!), and have it installed, but can't seem to get it to display. What am I missing?


EDIT: Right click and download. Clearly explained in the FAQ: https://squidd.io/faq#opencpn



* I looked at the web site. Here on the entire Chesapeake, there are about 5 marinas and zero anchorages. Expanding, the nearest anchorage shown is on Long Island Sound. Not helpful. I can (and probably will) add, but it is 100% selfless, and 0% selfish (I'll never get anything out of it, at least not near term). I contributed heavily to ActiveCaptain, but it was robust and already had a lot. I've contributed heavily to a startup, ArgoNav, but so far there isn't a single review anywhere in my harbor area (Solomon's Island), so again I'm contributing to an idea, not a going operation.


EDIT: I'm seeing a lot more icons now that I've got it on O, but they seem to have very little actual information. 6 or 8 words, perhaps. I did notice a friend of mine (user Azzurra) is posting reviews (or at least "checking in" -- I can't find any words), I'll need to talk with him.