Favorite Smart Phone Apps?

[Chinook]

I finally broke down and got this android smart phone, expecting it to come in handy on our Great Loop cruise, provided that I can just learn how to make it work. I'm wondering what apps to install. Feedback on your favorites, perhaps your top 3, would be most appreciated.

[Gabby_SC]

do a search and get the app that connects to the weather buoys. I have a dumb phone , but a marina dealer showed me the app once

https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... uoys&hl=en

wow check out the radar app on same page

[Russ]

Weather apps. Get 'em and play around. I have one, don't know the name, for iPhone. Shows lightning strikes. Pretty cool to judge a bad t-storm cloud.

[Azzarac]

I use several on my Android and love them. Top of the list for me is Navionics USA. It is about $9.00 I think but it covers all of the US waters, not just coastal. Invaluable IMO. Second favorite is ActiveCaptain, ActiveCaptain's Locations and their Drag Queen (free). These can provide area information on necessary amenities and keep you apprised of hazards around you. Seatow has an app to check tides, weather and emergency assistance (also free). I like the Marine Traffic AIS app just for fun and to see who is around you. For weather, I use Windfinde and PredictWind for wind information and the always helpful WeatherBug for local weather reports (also all free). These should keep you safe and entertained out there. Good luck on your trip and keep us apprised. I've always wanted to do the loop, just never have that long of a stretch of free time.

Fair Winds,
Capt. Azzarac
Chameleon
Follow Chameleon's travels at: http://svchameleon.weebly.com/

[Bilgemaster]

I'm a relative newbie to sailing as such, but my hunch (and it IS only that at this point) is that the freebie interactive cruising guidebook Active Captain (see: https://activecaptain.com/) will be a "must have", if only for the local information about anchorages, docking, best approaches to tricky coves, reviews of marinas, fueling docks and so forth. They are always integrating new features and ancillary programs like "eBoatCards" and now an Angie's List style of "Marine Services Reviews". You can also log into it on the web using a Windows laptop or whatever. Hard to believe it's free.

Another freebie app that seems to work well enough is SailDroid (see: https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... roid&hl=en), which is a super-simple app that has a magnetic compass, tracks speed, position, log, distance traveled and has day and night display modes. No telling how well all of its features may work out in the middle of the signal-poor Chesapeake (I have T-Mobile and/or an occasional Xfinity Wifi signal, so I'm not overly optimistic, but it looks like it might be very handy all the same, even out of range of signal).

I stumbled upon a maps viewer used as a supplement to the Williams & Heintz Virginia Cruising Guide book called PDFMaps (see: https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... enza&hl=en) that offers lots of free or for purchase nautical and other maps. This app might be better suited to a larger device than most phones, like, say, a cheapo sub-$100 tablet. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to offer a corresponding Windows version for a laptop, but one can still copy and view those PDF maps just using a laptop's Adobe Acrobat viewer, if needed. I expect that there are other, perhaps far better, chart and navigation suites out there. For example, I have heard good things about Navionics (see: http://www.navionics.com/en/news/free-d ... s-features), though I have yet to use or even download it.

Frankly though, whatever electronic goodies you may have on board, I believe anyone would do well to at least print out a free full color set of NOAA Booklet Charts for whatever areas one might conceivably travel through, and then stow these in a big ziploc somewhere "dryish" on board. After all, some day your batteries WILL run out, and probably just when you need that next buoy number and heading most. The most up-to-date charts are always available at http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/, and won't cost you a nickel. Use a reasonably waterproof color laser printer and NOT your bleedy old home inkjet, OK? One fairly humid day and all your inkjet chart prints will look like a handful of those old Rorschach inkblot tests (Correct Answer: "It looks like two clowns with hair lips playing pinochle with a yodeling clam"). So take that print job to Kinkos if you have to.

Best of luck! I'll be watching this space for tips too!

Regards,
Bilgey

[mallardjusted]

azzarac: Top of the list for me is Navionics USA

That is my favorite marine app as well. Tides, Currents, charts, etc ...... hard to beat.

[Tomfoolery]

ActiveCaptain
Drag Queen anchor alarm
RadarCast weather

I use a notebook computer with Maptech Offshore Navigator with USB GPS antenna, but it may be time to move to a smart phone app, as it would be easier than dragging that 14 year old brick around with me, and I always have my phone with me anyway. But at least it uses NOAA raster charts, which I can download for free from the gov't.

[chuck]

!, Marine Charts EarthNC -- If you search on just Marine Charts, you get a bunch. I use this one a lot.
1a. US West is good also
2. BoatUS - If you belong to BoatUS, this is a good one. Helps for towing also
3. MultiTide
4. TideDataFree
5. NOAABouy
6. MatineTraffic - Shows all of the AIS boats, ferries, and freighters etc around you. Great if you get in fog.

I have these and more on my Iphone

Good luck---Chuck

[Cougar]

Navionics boating. By far my favourite app. It's the only chart plotting solution that I use. I'm using it on a Samsung Galaxy Tab3 7" tablet. I don't even own a conventional chart plotter. Lots of other nautical apps, but not of any interest for Americans.

[Neo]

You guys are so lucky... I can't find much that covers Australia??

All the best.
Neo

[Cougar]

You guys are so lucky... I can't find much that covers Australia??

All the best.
Neo

I thought Navionics covered the whole planet...

Edit: ...and it does: https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... AppOceania

[kadet]

You guys are so lucky... I can't find much that covers Australia??

All the best.
Neo

You might have to go iOS

Jeppesen Marine Plan2Nav
Safetrx
mAIS
SEAiq Open
MarineTraffic

But all are available on Android except SEAiq Open

[tewharaunz]

We've used Navionics app (iPhone & iPad) for Australia & New Zealand. It downloads maps when you zoom in but once they are downloaded, you can use them offline. You can also choose to download certain areas. It's all we use at home (NZ) but it's also nice as a backup when we charter in Oz.

[Neo]

Thanks Guys,

I've downloaded most of these on my iPad. With regards to Navionics, it's available in HD for the iPad .... Is HD worth the extra expense?


UPDATE!
Bugger!.... Just remembered that my iPad does not have 3G/4G or GPS support ... so pretty useless!! ... Will have to spend more dollars!!
Also what do you iPad users use as case/enclosure for your iPad?

All the best.
Neo

[kadet]

FYI Neo

https://www.whitworths.com.au/main_item ... lutePage=1