The Navionics app running one of the company’s charts.Ī tape measure of sorts is still needed with your tablet and smartphone. It’s also easier to deal with a touch screen in the cockpit. Personally, I will always have a real laptop because I need the keyboard for serious typing, but many people actually prefer typing on the virtual keyboard of a tablet or smartphone. Since they lack keyboards, they tend to be easier to carry around safely in addition to being more water resistant and easy to find waterproof cases for, and they are just physically more rugged than most laptops. Tablets and smartphones are incredibly versatile tools on board, even if you never use them for actual navigational charting. Even if you are in the full-digital category, it is important to think about having backups and alternate equipment. However, it is entirely possible to go 100 percent digital, and many voyagers do. For me, that means having at least a small-scale (large area) paper chart of every region I plan to sail to, along with some paper guidebooks that usually include harbor chartlets for making landfall. I am old-school enough to believe in carrying what I need to navigate without electronics. A few basic considerations include what type of hardware and operating systems (OS) you will use, how you will store all this material on those systems, and what you will need for backups in case of digital failure. There are still logistical considerations to keep in mind when deciding what and how to bring along all this digital knowledge. The PredictWind app provides weather and wind info. Using nothing but your tablet and/or smartphone, you now have access to three basic essentials needed for voyaging navigation: 1) nautical charts, 2) cruising guides and piloting information, and 3) weather forecasting. The wealth of knowledge that can be carried on board is fantastic, plus you have the Internet when you reach port. Obviously, digital book and chart storage can eliminate much of this problem, and there are many additional functionalities that can be added by using smartphone, laptop and tablet apps. It was very easy to find yourself struggling down the dock to a new boat carrying 300 pounds of books in multiple trips. I really did that! The book inventory required for a long-distance cruise was staggering: charts, cruising guides, almanacs, tide tables, radio frequency guides, language translation books, cookbooks, phone books, Ocean Passages for the World, World Cruising Routes, travel books, novels, road atlases, dictionaries, etc. Gone are the days when I used to measure the length of the bookshelves on boats I was checking out for cruising.
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