July 30, 2011 23:39
Every year, we participate in a 24 hour race on Lake Macquarie, north of Sydney, Australia (http://www.heavencanwait.com.au).
Because access to the lake is through a channel that's only 2.5-3 m deep at the best of times, the Hydrographic Service has never properly surveyed the lake.
Hence, the charts of the lake through the likes of Fugawi don't give critical depth, hazards and nav marks information (if you have nav maps of Australia, check out the Lake Macquarie chart and you'll see what I mean).
However, it's possible to access "not for navigation" charts from NSW Maritime (in PDF format, and therefore saveable in a wide range of formats) which give all the required info, including pretty good depth indications, all nav marks, etc.
We've used these successfully in the past using public domain nav software, and letting us accurately plot our courses (and avoid hazards/grounding). We import the charts in the required format, then "map" (sorry, not sure of the correct terminology) it to the program using 2-3 known locations.
Is it possible to save such a chart in a format that can then be imported by an iPad/iPhone navigation/GPS App so we can use it during this event?
Because access to the lake is through a channel that's only 2.5-3 m deep at the best of times, the Hydrographic Service has never properly surveyed the lake.
Hence, the charts of the lake through the likes of Fugawi don't give critical depth, hazards and nav marks information (if you have nav maps of Australia, check out the Lake Macquarie chart and you'll see what I mean).
However, it's possible to access "not for navigation" charts from NSW Maritime (in PDF format, and therefore saveable in a wide range of formats) which give all the required info, including pretty good depth indications, all nav marks, etc.
We've used these successfully in the past using public domain nav software, and letting us accurately plot our courses (and avoid hazards/grounding). We import the charts in the required format, then "map" (sorry, not sure of the correct terminology) it to the program using 2-3 known locations.
Is it possible to save such a chart in a format that can then be imported by an iPad/iPhone navigation/GPS App so we can use it during this event?