We sail a 1976 Newport 28 from Portland, ME to points farther east. For about 10 years we relied on Fugawi software and a USB GPS antenna running on a laptop to keep us off the rocks and headed in the right direction. It worked well but I was usually the one down below with the computer and my wife was at the wheel out in the weather. She finally twisted my arm real hard and last year we installed a Simrad NSE8/BR24 system with the GS15 GPS antenna. Wow, what a difference! Now I get to enjoy the view from behind the wheel.
I made the mistake of hanging the radar on the split backstay. It works, but the radar often showed two targets where there should only have been one due to the swinging motion of the whole radar unit. We'll have to install it on a pole this year.
The factory installed charts were quite good, but we did notice that some of the more obscure marks were missing. Such as on the west to east approach to Mackeral Cove on Swans Island. We were glad we had good (paper) charts aboard.
The other major problem was that routes and waypoints had to be entered into the NSE8 directly. It was very difficult to do this while under way with two of us crowded behind the wheel - one steering and one messing with the NSE.
So, two questions. First, does the latest Simrad software update add significantly more detail to the charts? (Or can anyone recommend some other charting package that can be loaded into the NSE8?).
Second, is there a charting package that can be run on a laptop that will output routes and waypoints to the NSE8 either directly or via a USB thumbdrive "sneaker net"?
Doug
s/v Majaca
Doug,
You can purchase Navionics Platinum + cartography that is just awesome that will solve your first problem.
If you get the Navionics, get their NavPlanner II software and card reader. You can do your route planning on your laptop and then save the routes and waypoints to a USB drive and upload them directly to the NSE.
Barry
Thanks for the info. In a quick search for the Nav Planner II software, I found it on Amazon with only one very negative comment. He wasn't at all happy with the way it worked. See http://www.amazon.com/Navionics-3001-7866-NavPlanner-II/product-reviews/B003E1ZE5I/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1
Doug