Mark and Diana Doyle contacted me recently about their newest release, and a limited-time, special offer that Navagear readers may be interested in:
Anyway, as celebration and as a way of thanking everyone, we’re running a one-month freebie from our site. We’re just cutting the 5th edition (2010) of our 2-DVD set, Managing the Waterway: Complete Electronic Chart and Nautical Reference Library. So the "thank you" part is … if people buy the DVDs, they get a free copy of Get Onboard With E-Charting ($34.95) to go with it … kind of the ultimate companion or "user’s guide."
Sounds like a good deal! It expires February 28, though, so as they say on the late-night TV infomercials, “Act Now!”
Here’s the official press release on the new release:
MINNEAPOLIS, MN (January 26, 2010) — Managing the Waterway cruising guide authors Mark and Diana Doyle have released their fifth annual update of Managing the Waterway: Complete Electronic Chart and Nautical Reference Library (2-DVD Set).
“I’ll be honest,” states Doyle, “When we started downloading NOAA charts as a convenience for our cruising guide customers we never thought the product would evolve like this or that we’d be doing updates five years later.”
DVD 1 contains the entire NOAA raster chart library in standard BSB format. The charts are organized into nine popular cruising geographies and cataloged for easy loading and unloading into all of the popular e-charting applications including Coastal Explorer, Fugawi, The Capn, Nobeltec VNS and Admiral, MacENC, and others.
DVD 2 contains vector charts, nautical publications, and free & trial e-charting applications.
Complete NOAA ENC and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers IENC vector chart libraries are both included in standard S-57 format. NOAA covers coastwise U.S. waters as well as Pacific & Caribbean “possessions and interests.” The USACE is responsible for Inland Waterways including the Great Loop route from Chicago to Mobile.
United States and International cruisers can easily reference and search the following Acrobat PDF and HTML government publications, reference texts, and nautical calculators:
- American Practical Navigator (Bowditch)
- NGA List of Lights
- Atlas of Pilot Charts
- NOAA Coast Pilots
- Canadian Coast Guard Radio Aids to Navigation
- NOAA Hurricane Basics
- Chart No. 1 (Paper/Raster & Electronic/Vector)
- NWS Observing Handbook No. 1
- Distances Between Ports Pub. 151
- Radar Navigation Manual Pub. 1310
- Distances Between U.S. Ports
- Radio Navigation Aids Pub. 117
- Federal Meteorological Handbook No. 1
- Sailing Directions (Enroute)
- Handbook of Compass Adjustment
- Sailing Directions (Planning Guides)
- International Code of Signals Pub. 102
- Sight Reduction Tables Pub. 229
- Magnetic Variation Charts
- Sight Reduction Tables Pub. 249
- Marine Weather Service Charts
- State Chart Catalogs
- Mariner’s Guide for Hurricane Awareness
- The (CIA) World Factbook
- MF and HF Channels
- USCG Light Lists
- Nautical Calculators
- U.S. VHF Channels
- Nautical Chart User’s Manual
- World Port Index Pub. 150
- Navigation Rules (International & Inland)
- Worldwide Marine Radiofax Broadcast Schedules
For those new to e-charting, or for those current e-charting users who would like to test drive another application, free and trial software for both the PC and Macintosh includes Rose Point Navigation Systems Coastal Explorer, Fugawi Marine ENC, MacENC, NavSim BoatCruiser, SeaClear II, and TIKI Navigator.
Doyle summarizes, “NOAA and the USACE updated 3,000 plus e-charts this year. And 56 (32%) of the 176 publications also received updates. That’s a lot of change! This is a convenience product. Think buying a chicken at the supermarket on the way home so the family can have a hot meal, quickly and inexpensively. Although boaters can find and download many of these digital assets themselves, we think they’d rather be out on the water.”
