Navigation by cell phone

[Arminius]

I paid $6 for the "GPS Waypoint Navigator" https://play.google.com/store/apps/...eskies.android.gpswaypointsnavigator&hl=en_US which is an app for my Samsung cellphone. Besides designating waypoints with a touch of the screen, it allows downloading of NOAA marine charts at no additional charge. It navigates amongst the waypoints with the touchscreen. The phone functions through continued reception of satellite locations even when beyond cell tower range. Kind of amazing as I once got lost in the fog and bought a handheld LORAN for future security. Google Earth View would allow navigation by overhead imagery and I used to carry a pictorial wall hanging of the San Juans as a cheat sheet. My cellphone fits in a holder protruding from a cupholder on my dash!

 

[Henry Boyd]

Please take a safe boating and navigation course. Your post highlights a profound lack of understanding for safe boating practices. A cell phone, handheld LORAN device, and wall hanging pictorial do not qualify as safe boating practices.

You are apparently not aware LORAN has been decommissioned and no longer functioning in US waters since 1985. In addition, if the system was functioning you would need a NOAA chart to translate the LORAN coordinates into positional lat & long. Google earth photos are often months and years out of date and many marine features like sandbars, buoys and structures change with time.

 

[Carpediem44DB]

Please take a safe boating and navigation course. Your post highlights a profound lack of understanding for safe boating practices. A cell phone, handheld LORAN device, and wall hanging pictorial do not qualify as safe boating practices.

You are apparently not aware LORAN has been decommissioned and no longer functioning in US waters since 1985. In addition, if the system was functioning you would need a NOAA chart to translate the LORAN coordinates into positional lat & long. Google earth photos are often months and years out of date and many marine features like sandbars, buoys and structures change with time.

I second that emotion. I have a Navionics app for yuks and will bring it up to look for wind and current data and other info as it is convenient instead of bending over and fiddling with my display. I certainly do not rely on the info for actual navigation though. Its all part of a big picture but this is a very small part.
CD

 

[Gofirstclass]

Arminius, I agree 100% with Henry. You boat in some very beautiful but also very treacherous waters. If you want to be more confident and competent with your boat you should take a US Coast Guard Auxiliary safe boating course. Your life and the lives and safety of your passengers are in your hands.

Please be proactive and get this done ASAP.

 

[Arminius]

As to Loran, my point was simply that I've been at it a long time. That thing took forever to get a fix and would lose it when in the presence of a functioning TV set on someone's yacht in the destination harbor. There have been many gizmos and charts between then and now. I am reentering boating after 5 years off and find it amazing that the cell phone can now do effortlessly so many things that were complicated and expensive not so long ago. One thing has not changed, in a pinch, follow a ferry boat! Stuck at the dock in Rosario on account of persistent fog, I lined up in the wake of a superferry along with other small and not so small boats that had gotten the same idea. Some visibility back there and no freighter or ferry would run us down. We all got to the ferry terminal in Anacortes which is by the WA State Park, a ramp and my trailer. My 17' Seaswirl Cuddy with the 150 Johnson was not fully planing and ran very bow high. After this experience I permanently located a radar reflector as high as possible in the front of the cabin. Back then, navigating involved acquiring the waypoints by Lat/long from the charts and programming the GPS. I'm just a lake boater now and probably don't need the GPS to find the ramp at the Club. You can even bluetooth an AIS receiver to the cell phone and see the large ships on your phone if you are out in navigable waters! So much of that expensive equipment you guys have has become obsolete!