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Phone apps for on water navigation and tracking


Jim Snyder

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I don't want this topic to become a discussion on the relative merits of gps versus chart and compass navigation. I was recently totally fogged in south of York and although we had a chart with us I was pretty happy to be able to look at my phone from time to time to verify our position. I would like to describe the apps I'm familiar with and ask if others have found apps that work for them.

  • Gaia: This was my favorite for a long time until they were unable to deal with the changes at NOAA. The charts now are virtually useless for lack of detail but the tracking still works, you just have to export it elsewhere for it to have any value. I still like it for hiking and skiing. The free version is fine for most uses. 
  • SEAiq: This app has some different features like identifying other vessels in your area but if it has tracking capability I can't figure it out. I keep it on my phone as a backup. As of writing this, the charts still work normally. When I got it years ago there was a small one time purchase cost.
  • Caltopo: I just realized Caltopo has a phone app. The free version operates on data to load charts or a cache of charts you've viewed in preparation for a trip. If you pay the $20 subscription you can download charts and store them on your phone. I had a little trouble sorting out how to use their map layers but if I only use it on the water I don't have to make any adjustments. Tracking works well as does storing waypoints. It has a "navigate to" feature that I haven't tried yet.

What are you using?

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I just turned on my (paid) GAIA, and found that the newly formatted charts have been "quilted" into the Maine Coast, only beyond Head Harbor I, and further DownEast. I'll be disappointed if the standard NOAA charts get replaced by the new format.

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Gaia has sadly become unusable since this change (and they are responsible, since the underlying new-style NOAA charts have plenty of detail). Since their support people could provide no indication of a pending fix  I have cancelled my subscription to Gaia and now use the Navionics app, the same as countless non-kayak boaters. It is not as good for route planning or sharing but excellent for in-the-moment navigation. the charts are complete and functional and the integration with weather and tidal information is very good. Also they have their own chart database that extends worldwide so usable in Canada, Europe, etc.

 

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On 4/16/2022 at 11:01 AM, Jim Snyder said:

 I was recently totally fogged in south of York and although we had a chart with us I was pretty happy to be able to look at my phone from time to time to verify our position.

I bet you dollars to donuts that my "maps" app on my iPhone would have enough detail to get you back to a safe harbor! Try it out next time on the water and report back.

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12 hours ago, gyork said:

my "maps" app on my iPhone

While apps like "Maps" or "Google Maps" are great on land, and even on the water will show you where you are and which way you're pointing, they fall short for a number of reasons.

  • No chart details, and some islands we visit regularly don't even appear on the screen at any zoom level.
  • No tracking function. Marine navigation apps allow you to save a track as a .KML file, which can be imported to places like Google Earth to view your trip.
  • They won't support navigation assistance point to point on the water.

So if there was nothing better, they'd be amazing but we're so lucky to have better options. As an aside, I'd love to go back to visit my 20 year old backpacking self and tell him that when he was an old guy, he'd have a device in his pocket that would not only show him a topo map for where he was but indicate precisely his location on it and which direction he was facing. He used to get lost from time to time.

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On 4/17/2022 at 7:13 AM, Joseph Berkovitz said:

Gaia has sadly become unusable since this change (and they are responsible, since the underlying new-style NOAA charts have plenty of detail). 

I was able to resuscitate the old NOAA chart software, after contacting Gaia customer support. Here is their response:
 
Thanks for taking the time to write in about this.
 
I am sorry for the trouble. NOAA deprecated their map server for NOAA Charts and we are working on improving the replacement map.
 
While the Maps Team is working on the replacement, I'd suggest setting up a custom map source in your account. Here is how to do that:
 

  1. skip to step 3 here: Adding a TMS Map Source
  2. the TMS URL is: https://tileservice.charts.noaa.gov/tiles/50000_1/{z}/{x}/{y}.png

 

Jay Crooker
Gaia GPS
Adventure Support

After you've added and renamed (?NOAA-old) the "new" map source on your computer, sync your phone app under "account."

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I got the same advice. However this solution a) produces a map that is unshareable with others who are not GaiaGPS customers, and b) uses a much too large chart scale for a given zoom level so that you can’t see any detail unless zoomed way in (the old Gaia charts didn’t have this problem)  

the inability to share with anyone on the web wrecks the whole point of using Gaia, and the resolution problem is a real drag even if you’re not sharing. This fix is just a stopgap that their support folks cobbled together. They know it, which is why they readily refunded my subscription and I’d advise others to ask for the same. The company was bought last year and the product has been steadily going downhill ever since.

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