Sunday before noon we lifted anchor and motored by SV Anna. We had a brief chat with Rich on deck. They recently built a hard dodger for their boat from aluminum. You can see details on their blog, go2anna.blogspot.com. They plan to head south to Central and South America as well. We hope to see them again down the coast.
We motored north, adding engine hours as there was no wind to speak of. We stopped for an overnight at Isla Passavera, just off Chamela. The island, is rugged, covered with brush, cacti and birds. The evening was hot and muggy with little breeze. A cool rinse in the shower helped us to go to sleep.
This morning the alarm buzzed at 6:00 am. It was still dark so we had our coffee in the cockpit waiting for the light to improve. At 7:15 am we were on our way, bashing north with the swells on our nose,, riding up, then splashing down, 5 ft, 6 second centers, slow going.
Just an aside about charts. We have a Furuno charter/plotter in the cockpit and we are using Jepperson C-map mega wide electronic charts for Mexico (cost $300 for charts only, not hardware). We also have an Ipad2, and we used the iNaxX app with the Navionics Gold charts for Central and South America (cost $50 for charts only, not app or hardware). The C-map chart indicated we were going overland to anchor in Tenacatita. The Navionics chart showed we were remaining in water. This is just one example of differences in electronic charts between one supplier and another. Unfortunately, when you buy electronic charts it is a bit of a hit or miss proposition. One reason electronic charts are off I suspect that the datum is incorrect and that could be from the Mexican source. Some suppliers cater to the bigger customers such as commercial customers like cruiser ships, container shipping and larger yachts so they have lots of detail for Puerto Vallarta but not Tenacatita for example.
So, what should a cruiser do?
If you have plenty of funds, (which few of us have), then buy electronic charts from multiple suppliers and hope that at least one has details for the places you want to go.
Use the option we are taking which is a combination of suppliers on two platforms, the charter/plotter and the IPad, supplementing with cruising guides like Charlie's Charts, and having some paper charts as well. Since we use the iPad for other tasks such as email, Internet browsing, calendar, etc, we could justify the expense. When we went cruising in 2001-2004, we strictly used a laptop for navigation and a combination of purchased and bootleg charts and had the same problem.
Using paper charts and guides is still a tried and true method. It is least expensive in terms of electronic hardware but I do like the electronic benefits of overlaying radar, gribs and AIS information on the charts.
My advice to cruisers, new and experienced, who are planning to purchase electronic charts, to look at several platforms and suppliers before you buy. When you go to the boat shows, talk to the vendors and have them show you the charts of the areas you plan to cruise and see what the details are. Bear in mind that one solution may not be sufficient and that you may need more than one to get the coverage you need. If you are planning to cruise just within the United States, you should not have to worry and any supplier will have sufficient detail. Cruising outside the United States, this is not the case.
Well, enough of my digression into charts. Time for some cold water.
Sent from SV Windarra iPad
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