Since we are going to be sailing over to the Med in the not too distant future, the "LIST" seems to continue to grow and includes some geeky stuff that is not the normal day to day projects that is the norm on "So It Goes"...
Charts are high on the list, and with the costs these days not a fun one. So I keep looking for deals of various sorts but not so many these days and I will be happy when the exodus of sailors coming from Europe arrive as hopefully we will be able to buy and trade the needful chart coverage. Failing that Belingham Chart Printers provides good quality copies of charts and we sailed the Med to the Caribbean using xeroxed charts before, but even so, the prices even on copies is painful!
Which brings us to the geeky stuff (don't worry I won't go all Panbo on you) and electronic charts. A chip containing the Med and Black sea charts is not so bad as the "street" price is just less than $290 (compared to the the same coverage in 2/3 sized xeroxed charts from Bellingham Chart Printers at nearly $2000!)
Of course you still need paper charts...
One interesting source or idea for a back up chart system is the charts available for the iPhone as the Navionics chart coverage for the Med costs less than $12. WTF? Of course, you need an iPhone and as I am phone-phobic and don't really want to own a phone (Globalstar does not count as it never works long enough to actually be problematic!) as people might call me and I'd have to talk to them...
Of course, what I'd really like to use is the iPod Touch but the Touch does not have GPS which is where the geek thing comes in... Apparently there is a hack that allows you to add GPS to a Touch and while maybe a bit clunky having an external GPS via BlueTooth, it is an option! This would also, I believe, allow most of the neat sailing applications (like SailMaster) for the iPhone to be used on the Touch... Cool! I suppose the iPhone makes more sense for most folk but I do like having a Touch option!
Over Jammer
2 days ago
