Google Earth And GPS For Boat Owners

[demonboy]

Afternoon,

I've just written a little introduction on Google Earth for cruisers, including GPS tracking, if anyone is interested. It's merely an introduction to the subject so if you have any wisdom to share with other readers, please use the comments form at the bottom of the article.

Click here for article

We'll be switching our host company in April as service can be quite slow. If you get a page load error, try refreshing.

 

[jmac]

What a great article - Many thanks for taking the time to write this. Bookmarked for later digestion and implementation!

/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Phoenix of Hamble]

Excellent... a thoroughly useful guide... cheers!

 

[Ardelloeixe]

Thank you, demonboy. Very interesting article. I will have a try when I have a bit more time.

Cheers

 

[saltwater_gypsy]

Good effort. Saved it for later use.

 

[peterN]

Great information. I'm taking the boat through the french canals this year and GPS position information on GE would be an ideal aid for the trip! I've just got to try to get it working.

All the best

 

[Blue5]

Great information, and some great new links to explore, with all this technology to hand there will hardly be any time left to actually sail the boat.................. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

 

[Mrnotming]

Thanks Demonboy, great article, have bought Franson GPS gate full version already to ease GPS connections and it works well. Must get around to the caching of decent bits of sea.
One question, something which has eluded me, how do you dive beneath the surface on GE? is it when altitude becomes minus? I've tried this but perhaps the area I tried off Marseilles just does not have any bathy info?
Hope it all comes together soon especially as Mac users seem to be catered for as well!

 

[demonboy]

Hi Paul,

Yes, I seem to remember that I could only dive beneath the surface where the data is available. I can't, for example, dive beneath the surface where I am in Turkey, but I can do so in the Atlantic.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Caveat

The article suggests that Google Earth could be used as a navigation tool in the future. For reasons to do with the way GE handles data, this is very unlikely, and I suspect Google will never endorse it as a navigation tool. It is primarily a data visualization tool. In particular, the ocean depth data is low resolution and is completely inadequate for navigational use. The data are as good as you can get for a single dataset with global coverage, but that isn't good! It is great for visualizations, but it isn't of navigational quality.

Another caveat is that the projection of Google Earth is not a standard navigational one; rhumb lines are NOT straight lines as expected on a chart.

Finally, GE does not always use the best data available; for example it's Antarctic coastline is awful, and Google don't respond to suggestions about ways it could be improved!

Google Earth is a fun way of visualizing where you've been and of sharing your track and so on with others. but it is not and probably never will be suitable for navigational purposes.

AntarcticPilot, speaking about a subject he knows very well indeed.

 

[agurney]

Whoever massaged the GE data had a habit of removing isolated islands - not just small ones, but substantial lumps of rock like Staffa and the Garvellachs.

 

[nimbusgb]

Why not just buy a spot tracker and its all done for you?

No need for modems or internet connectivity from the boat either. Stand alone just gets on with it!