![]() ![]() Our setup is simple: chart plotter at the binnacle and phone to one side in a clamp. We run a proprietary chart plotter (B&G) with Navionics charts and do not use Windows, Linux or IOS, and yet we use satellite images to navigate, sometimes for hours at a time. But not all of us run systems to allow us to do this. You may already be familiar with KAP files, which allow you to overlay a sat image on a chart using something like GE2KAP to create the file and OpenCPN to display it. ![]() These images benefit from being precise and detailed when zoomed right in because they show the obstructions a chart plotter or paper chart is unable to provide. One resource many yachties use, in conjunction with charts, is satellite images. It’s not unusual to see your track going across land in these rock and reef-strewn areas. The Red Sea was impossible to navigate by chart through the tight marsas of its western coast, Maldives charts are poor, and two years ago in the Anambas we used satellite images everywhere. Here in Indonesia the charts can be up to half a mile off, but it’s not the first time we’ve come across charts being of limited value. ![]() Using satellite images can give valuable aid in these conditions by accurately identifying reefs and shallow patches in some cases they have become our primary means of navigation. This was made more difficult by our nautical charts being off by anything between 200m and half a mile. You may have noticed–if you’ve been watching our YouTube channel–that we’ve been threading our way through some reef-strewn narrow channels in the islands off western Sumatra. ![]()
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