Electronic charts in Eastern Mediterranean

[rjmcl]

I'm a newbie to electronic charts on PC or a cockpit tablet and still researching what to buy for my yacht.
We will only sail in the Mediterranean, mostly Greece / Turkey, but also across to Sicily / Sardinia.

I have been round YBW forums and other websites, but am still confused about what is best solution.

It appears that the most popular electronic charts available for eastern mediterranean region are Navionics or Imray.

Imray appears quite expensive, about £300 for all the areas I wish to sail, and the Navionics app gets poor reviews for endless pop-ups and pointless pictures overlaid on chart information.

The most recommended cheap programmes for yacht navigation seem to be OpenCPN or Marine Navigator. Unfortunately,I cannot find charts for these apps which cover central / eastern Mediterranean areas. I downloaded KAP files for Mediterranean from OpenSeaMap - only to find no depth information on the charts (RTFM!)

The yacht already has a Raymarine E80 with full mediterranean charts at the saloon nav station, and and a Standard Horizon GX2200E VHF providing AIS data. I cannot currently get AIS data from the VHF to show on the Raymarine plotter. Perhaps one day, maybe not with my technical ability.

I have just purchased a refurbished Dell laptop for the yacht, so a Windows based solution with wifi to cockpit tablet could be an option. However, I would prefer to use a standalone tablet with GPS in the cockpit as backup, and another layer of redundancy.

10" Android tablets with GPS are now very cheap and (in my view) reliable. I've never had an iPad. We also have an ever growing suite of paper charts, so will never be totally reliant on electrics

I would like a 1)User friendly, 2) raster format, 2) android tablet, 4) with AIS data overlay 3) cheap electronic chart solution.

However, I am willing to forgo any of these to get a workable solution for cockpit electronic navigation. But perhaps not to the extent of £1500+ for a largish marine chartplotter.

What do other forumites use / recommend for electronic navigation in central / eastern mediterranean?
Regards, Richard

 

[poter]

Richard,
on the Google play store on Android there is a Navionics Europe HD App for £49.99, I have used this for all my navigation in the Med. in the cockpit on a Samsung Tablet, I don't have AIS but looking to get this season on to my on-board laptop.
There is an AIS thread in Practical boating forum.

 

[cmedsailor]

If you have a smart phone (or want to buy a cheap tablet) download the navionics europe to use as a back up and move your raymarine E80 to the cockpit.

 

[JanZ]

+1 for Navionics for (relative) cheapness. It's not perfect but neither am I.......

 

[truscott]

Another vote for Navionics on a Samsung Tablet. Never seen the "Pop Ups" that the OP mentioned. We use Navionics Europe HD, and can happily report that it remains available even when you do a complete reset on the Tab. Just go back in to Google Play and reinstall.

We have the TAB in a waterproof housing on a RAM mount under the spray hood. Still working on how to power it though. Battery life is around 8 hours if you don't have the display on all the time. On longer passages, we move it below and plug it in.

We also have OpenCPN on a couple of laptops and have OpenPlotter running on a RPi3 with AIS overlaid from an SD Radio USB. We use VNC on the Tab to display in the cockpit, but switch to Navionics for the close in stuff (I prefer the level of detail in Navionics). Also have CMAP on the Navman plotter at the Nav Station, and have loads of Paper charts too.

PT

 

[poter]

Just a note on power to a tablet.
I installed a cigarette lighter some time ago and use car lead, that is a male adapter into the cigarette lighter with a mini USB to the tabelt.
Now looking at getting a powered USB socket and a standard USB to mini USB lead.

 

[Chris_Robb]

I use Navionics on my Samsung S5 and have never seen unwanted popups. Very good value but just as a reference tool in the cockpit. For proper Nav planning and use whilst sailing, I use PC Plotter with the Navionics med chart set - cant remember what it cost. This sits on the chart table with the Laptop velcrowed to the table. PC Plotter is a very good Navigation system and planning system and I love it. Look at it here: http://www.pcplotter.com/

Navionics are not Rastor charts - but Vector are fine so long as you remember to focus in on the actual route you are planning - but I always have a paper set out as well!

I have not yet bothered with AIS as we don't see that many ships - its not like the channel - and by the time I need it what ever I buy now will be obsolete by the time I decide to go back to the UK.

 

[rjmcl]

Thanks for helpful replies, Navionics on cheap android tablet seems best option. However still much to learn, and further research required to fully understand some of the answers. May PM for clarification.
Regards, Richard

 

[truscott]

Thanks for helpful replies, Navionics on cheap android tablet seems best option. However still much to learn, and further research required to fully understand some of the answers. May PM for clarification.
Regards, Richard

Richard. I got your pm. Am traveling and screen space on mobile makes responding to your message difficult. Will respond once I am back in the real world with a respectable ui.
Cheers PT

 

[Mikedefieslife]

The daft popups ask whether you are at sea or inland. Then it tries to connect to navionics servers to get tide information which results in another popup getting in the way of navigation.

 

[GTom]

I am looking for new charts, likely a new plotter too but can't decide which chartset to go with. I don't have a card to update (the old SD in my Lowrance 3600 is only 128MB), which makes Navionics just as expensive as Imray. I wonder which one has a better chart base?

I am a great fan of OpenCPN, but there is nothing for it on Greece & Turkey.

 

[vyv_cox]

I have Navionics on a B&G plotter and the HD version on a Samsung tablet. Both work well but the biggest problem in Greece is that the cartography is incomplete. Many anchorages and bays have never been surveyed accurately, so the detail is not there. When we previously had Garmin Blue charts we found exactly the same problem. But with assistance from the Captain Elias Eagle Ray pilots we manage OK.