Sailing Distances Calculator

[Jim_ME]

Having often used the GoogleMaps Directions feature to plan routes and calculate distances on land, I had looked a few times to see if anyone had created a similar feature for distances over the water.

Recently found this sailing distance calculator...
http://www.sailgreeceyachts.com/sailing-distances-greece.html

Fortunately (for me ;D) It works for other areas in addition to Greece. You just have to zoom out and back in to the area that you're interested in. They DO have links that bring you quickly to a few areas, including the Bahamas  :). Maybe they will add more, if we ask for them.   

One feature that I would find useful would be to be able to add waypoints with separate distances [in my own case, say, the distance for each day's sail between anchoring for the night], and still also have it keep a cumulative total distance. 

Maybe there is another, possibly better distance calculator out there that that I'm not aware of?

[Bubba the Pirate]

Here's one that is slightly less interactive and you have to know a port by name, but it gives time as well as distance based on your input for speed.

http://www.sea-distances.org/

Google shows some other options. PortWorld looks cool, but I didn't feel like registering for it. It's free according to them.

[Jim_ME]

Thanks, Todd.

That is an interesting calculator, especially the "Voyager" feature, where you can create a custom list of ports showing the distances between them, and the cumulative total.

I do wish that it was interactive with a map/chart and you could click on possible ports directly instead of picking them from the lists of ports. Guess that would be like a combination of the site that I posted below, and this one.

[Edit: It showed the distance between the first two ports that I put in, but now that I've added more, I see that it only shows the total distance and time.  :(  ] 

[cap-couillon]

Not an online service, but you might try downloading OpenCpn

You can download all the NOAA charts here for free, and other world wide  charts are also available. Designed for chartplotting, but we use just for route planning, and gps route uploads and track downloads.

No cost, just a little learning curve.

[Jim_ME]

Thanks, David. I've seen others comment favorably on OpenCPN, but haven't checked it out until now.  Didn't realize that it is free. It does look like it could be helpful with planning.

Afraid that I'm low-tech. Don't have a chart plotter. My PCs have been desktop, have not owned a laptop yet. Hand-held GPS and printed charts/booklets so far.

Would you expand a bit on your method for route planning with the NOAA Charts?

[cap-couillon]

Morning Jim ...

Use paper charts, and an old garmin 126 gps myself for primary nav aids (still carry a sextant for that matter) but OpenCpn is really nice for route planning as it allows me to upload a series of routes to the gps rather than having to punch all the individual waypoints in by hand.  Here is a screen shot of OpenCpn looking at the Charleston (SC) harbor entrance. The blue lines north to south are a pair of routes (Cape Fear to Chucktown, Chucktown to St Mary's)...

Not planning to stop in Chucktown, but might need to duck inside for weather or what ever... How far is it from my planned route into the harbor?  Use the "measure tool" , and a little window pops up giving you the distance between points (can be several points). 

The charts were downloaded from NOAA as a zip file, unzipped, and then OpenCPN was told where to find them. You can download up to 10 charts at a time as a packaged zip file, or go for the whole enchilada... All the noaa charts at once (about a 1.8gig file last time I looked)

After getting to where I am satisfied with the planned routes, I go ahead and upload them to the gps, then use them along with my paper charts underway.

I do have a laptop onboard and have a little "hockey puck" gps plugged in to that as well. Cheap chartplotter for backup, and will be using the track info to update our position on the Solitaire's web page. The laptop, and the primary cockpit GPS do not talk to each other under way. Nice check on possible position errors, although when we are heading into questionable waters we prefer a paper chart and the Mark-I eyeball for position checks.

While we are dragging you (kicking and screaming) into the 21st century, you might want to check out Navigatrix...
It is a linux based operating system designed just for folks on boats by folks on boats. Also free, and includes OpenCPN already installed as well as a huge amount of other marine goodies... GRIB (weather) download and display software, Tide predictions, email over SSB, sight reduction software, and so forth.  You can install it on your PC side by side with your current OS (window$ ? ) and boot whichever one you want.

Just another learning project, but support is good through the site forum. Mostly active cruisers.

Hope this helped...  think we are going to be able to get out of here the 1st or 2nd weather cooperating. May be slow in replying to additional questions while under way, but will catch up when we can.

[Jim_ME]

Thanks again. OpenCPN has more chart/navigation features than I realized. Can see how being able to upload the waypoints to your GPS unit would be convenient.

I did take a quick look at Navigatrix. Have crossed paths with a some big Linux fans, and now something that I may be able to use.  :)

[miatapaul]

Navagatrix is great and will work quite well even on the cheapest laptop. You could also use a older used laptop as well.