We’ve used Marine Traffic to track down buddy boats, or follow family and friends on their cruising adventures. View any in-range vessel with AIS on a live map. Infact, it’s even meant to allow you to browse over a satellite connection, though we never had any luck making this work with our Iridium Go. While sailing in the South Pacific where internet was famously slow and expensive, Opera made it possible to connect. While not exclusively a sailing app, we love this web browser because it dramatically speeds up web browsing and reduces mobile data charges by eliminating ads and compressing images. OTHER SAILING APPSįor IOS, Android & Desktop Windows and Mac (FREE) Interface is a bit glitchy on the zoom, but the data is quick. It’s nice for storing gribs offline and checking later when we no longer have cell connection. Robin has also used it for his work in the past as a building science engineer for diagnosing issues in buildings…it’s that accurate. We use this app as a backup system to tell us about our current environment and we’ve found it to be as accurate as our Maretron Weather Station (a $700 piece of equipment). Some smartphones have built in sensors to detect temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure. Good for planning a day-sail and checking current wind conditions at various locations. We find Windfinder works well for forecasting wind speeds but has been inconsistent for tide data. See our detailed review of the PredictWind Offshore app here. The forecasts were very accurate and we could quickly download them over our Iridium Go connection. We used the offshore product on a Pacific crossing in 2017 and couldn’t have been happier with the results. The inshore app displays high resolution weather forecasts, accessible by internet or mobile data and the offshore version additionally allows you to access GRIBS via a satellite or SSB connection. PredictWind offers two great apps for weather forecasting: one for inshore and coastal sailing and another for offshore sailing. SAILING WEATHER APPSįor IOS, Android, Desktop for Offshore version (Inshore version FREE, Offshore version by subscription) Free NOAA charts are available and work with OpenCPN as do CM93 world charts. OpenCPN does not contain charts so you have to download those separately. Having recently ditched paper charts on our boat, it’s nice to have a backup for your backup. We recently installed it on our and android phone as a backup. When it comes to navigation, who doesn’t love redundancy? Like many cruisers we are running OpenCPN on our laptop. This app has a bit of a learning curve and is not particularly intuitive, but it’s very useful once you’ve got the hang of it.įor Android, Desktop Windows and Mac (FREE) It’s necessary to download the satellite images while connected to the internet but once you have them saved, you can access them anytime. OvitalMap allows you to view satellite images and track your GPS position OFFLINE! We found this app invaluable while sailing in poorly charted areas and navigating tricky passes. I often plot all of our waypoints below deck on the iPad and then wirelessly upload it to our Raymarine chartplotter – how sweet is that! Another feature we love is the apps’ compatibility with Raymarine products. Worldwide maps are available and we would now take our iPad along on any charter boat excursion. For those of you with wanderlust, we found that Navionics had the most accurate charting for Mexico. In December 2018 they released a version which runs on both smartphones and tablets and includes an Active Captain overlay. As our backup navigation system this app has been invaluable! We use it for passage planning, double-checking our position, and when our Raymarine chartplotter glitches out. Navionics has recently put out an exciting new update. SAILING NAVIGATION APPS Navionicsįor IOS and Android (FREE, charts sold separately) Let us know the sailing apps that you can’t live without in the comment box below. Below are our fav apps that we use regularly. The best sailing apps for navigation, weather, and moreĪs much as we love to get out on the water and disconnect, we still have a soft spot in our hearts for the apps that make life afloat a little easier.
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