OpenCPN was updated after I posted this article. I have updated it with footnotes to address some of the changes in OpenCPN 5.0. Click here to see details of what’s new in OpenCPN 5.0

When cruising on Questeria, we like to have a route on our chartplotter. This makes for a less stressful day. When cruising for several days, we plan the routes ahead of time and organize them using Google Sheets.

Cruise Planning Overview

In Planning Multi-Day Cruises—Overview, I talk about how I plan extended cruises. I discuss plans vs. intentions, or being flexible. In this case, the cruise we planned never happened.

The post talks about how I create a route by starting with two or three waypoints on a small scale chart, and then, zoom in and iteratively refine it on larger scale charts.

I also give an overview of the tools we use. The next articles discuss each tool in more detail.

OpenCPN

In Planning Muli-Day Cruises—OpenCPN, I talk about OpenCPN. I discuss installing and setting-up OpenCPN and installing charts. I also talk about using OpenCPN to create waypoints and routes.

HomePort

In Planning Muli-Day Cruises—HomePort, I talk about Garmin HomePort. The post talks about installing and setting-up HomePort on a Windows PC. I also talk about using HomePort and transfering user data between HomePort and a Garmin chartplotter.

ActiveCaptain

In Planning Muli-Day Cruises—ActiveCaptain, I talk about Garmin ActiveCaptain. The post talks about the website and the mobile app. I talk about using ActiveCaptain to find anchorages, marinas and more. I talk about setting-up the mobile app on an iOS or Android device and importing and exporting user data to/from the app.

GPX Tools

In Planning Muli-Day Cruises—GPX Tools, I talk about GPX Tools. These are two utility programs that I wrote to make it easier to plan multi-day cruises.

Example Route

In this post, I put it all together. I walk through an example route that I created as part of a trip from FL Keys to Moore Haven, FL.

I talk about Plans vs. Intentions in Planning Multi-Day Cruises—Overview. This turned out to be the case here. We had a schedule—a memorial service in Chicago, and a wedding in Phoenix, Arizona. When we called the boatyard in Moore Haven, FL, they told us there was a waiting list. So we left Questeria in Marathon and took off in our RV.

I started this series of articles a while ago. For now, this is the last post on this topic. Maybe later we will take this trip, and I will follow-up with more posts. Here is my example.

Copying Data from Chartplotter

Before doing anything, I like to copy all the routes, tracks and waypoints from my chartplotter to my SD card. I use a 16GB Micro SD card with an SD adapter. It contains my map and user data, with plenty of room to spare. I turn on my chartplotter and plug in my SD card/adapter and I select the “Manage Card” prompt, and then “Save to Card” and “Overwrite this File: USERDATA”. I press “Yes”, and it prepares the card, transfers User Waypoints, Routes and Tracks. Then, I eject the SD card from the chartplotter, remove it from the adapter and plug it into my computer. Then I start HomePort—it finds the SD card. I can click on USERDATA and see all my waypoints, routes and tracks from my chartplotter.

Finding an Anchorage or Marina

Once we have a rough idea of the trip, we look at places where we might want to drop the anchor, or pull into a slip for the night. We use ActiveCaptain website to do this.

We want to spend a night at the anchorage called West Pass. After opening the ActiveCaptain website and signing-in, I search for West Pass, click on the anchorage, and it brings me here. I click Show Marker Info, if it’s not already visible. I copy the latitude and longitude to the clipboard, by highlighting them with my mouse, right-clicking and selecting Copy.

Creating a Waypoint

After copying the latitude and longitude of my anchorage, I go to OpenCPN. I create a waypoint by right-clicking in the approximate location on the chart and selecting Drop Mark. Then I double-click on my new waypoint to open the Waypoint Properties window. I enter the name, West Pass, and change the symbol to Symbol-Anchor1¹. Then I right-click in the Latitude field, and select Paste lat/lon. I now have a waypoint of the West Pass anchorage.

I do this again for the anchorage called San Carlos Bay NW.

Exporting a Waypoint from OpenCPN

When I create a waypoint on OpenCPN, I may want to have it on my Garmin chartplotter. I do this by exporting it to my PC, importing it into HomePort, and sending it to my userdata in my SD card.

To export a waypoint from OpenCPN, I open the Route & Mark Manager, by clicking the icon at the top of the screen. Next, I select the Waypoints tab and click on the waypoint to be exported. Then, I click on Export Selected… I get a File menu. If this is my first waypoint for this trip, I create a new folder, something like Route2019. I select a folder and file name. I usually use the suggested file name, like West Pass.gpx. I now have a GPX file on my PC.

Importing a Waypoint to HomePort

If this is the first waypoint from the trip in HomePort, I create a new List to hold my waypoints and routes. I right-click on the My Collection Folder and select New List. I name the new list Route2019.

To import the waypoint, I click on the list Route2019, and then click File and Import to ‘Route2019’... I get a File Explorer menu, select West Pass.gpx, and click Open. It imports my waypoint. The waypoint symbols in HomePort are different than in OpenCPN. I double-click the waypoint and change the symbol to an anchor and close the menu. I want the West Pass anchorage waypoint on my chartplotter, so I right-click on it and select Send To… I select the USERDATA ADM file, under my GPSMAP 4808 device, and click OK.

I click on my USERDATA ADM file and see the waypoint. It is stored on my SD card and will be stored on my chartplotter in a later step. Some things to note about waypoints on the chartplotter are:

• Every waypoint, route and track must have a unique name. This also applies to waypoints that are inside of routes.
• HomePort/chartplotter modifies a duplicate name by appending a digit to the end.
• The chartplotter truncates names to ten characters, and ensures no duplicates by appending digits.
• The chartplotter will force all names to uppercase.

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Creating a Route

For me, creating a route is an iterative process. I usually start with OpenCPN. I make sure that I have charts for my cruising area, and that they are up to date. First I create a simple route with a few waypoints. I click the Create Route button, and click my mouse to create waypoints. I usually start on a small scale, and create a starting point, ending point, and maybe a few in between points. It’s okay if my ending point is not on my screen, because I can append it later. If I already have routes or tracks for part of the way, I start with that.

First, I create a simple route with a few waypoints. I start my route at West Pass waypoint. I click near the West Pass waypoint and I get a message saying “Use nearby waypoint?”.  I click Yes. Next, I click near San Carlos Bay NW waypoint, and click Yes to “Use nearby waypoint?”. I end the route by right-clicking and selecting End Route. Obviously, the route needs more waypoints.

Next, I insert waypoints where my route is over land and move them over water. To insert a waypoint in OpenCPN, right-click on the route and select Insert Waypoint. I move the waypoint by clicking on it to highlight it, and dragging it with the mouse. To append a waypoint, I right-click on the route and select Append Waypoint. Subsequent clicks will append new waypoints to my route until I end it. To remove a waypoint, I right-click on it and select Delete. I can also select Remove from Route to keep the waypoint, but not have it in the route.

Next, I zoom in and check water depths and markers, and edit the route. Next, I go to a larger scale chart, and continue editing the route. It is an iterative process of zooming in to more detail and refining my route.

When I am done editing, I double-click on the route and a Route Properties window comes up. I name the route, keeping it short, because my chartplotter limits the number of characters in the name. I name this one WP-OWW. I put the Depart From field as West Point and Destination field as Okeechobee Waterway, so I remember what WP and OWW stand for.

Here is a screenshot of my WP-OWW route. The waypoint names are random, but I will fix them later.

Exporting a Route from OpenCPN

After creating, and refining my route on OpenCPN, I export it to my computer, so I can import it to HomePort, check it and refine it again. I click the Route & Mark Manager icon and select the Routes tab. I click on the route to be exported and click on Export Selected… I get a file explorer menu and save it to my trip folder, using the suggested name, WP-OWW.gpx.

Importing a Route into HomePort

Next, I import the route into HomePort so I can check it out with my chartplotter charts and further refine it.  I click on the list Route2019, and then click File and Import to ‘Route2019’... I get a File Explorer menu, select WP-OWW.gpx, and click Open. It imports my route. 

I click on the route to center it on my display. I zoom in and refine it.

Exporting a Route from HomePort

When, I am done looking at, and/or refining the route, I export it back to my PC. I click on the route to select it. Then I click on File, then on Export, and on Export Selection… I get a file explorer menu, save it using the suggested name and folder. I get a message saying “WP-OSS.gpx already exists. Do you want to replace it?” I click Yes. The file HomePort GPX file is now on my PC.

I’m happy with my route at this point. I could send it to USERDATA and save it to my chartplotter. But I want to clean it up and put it in a spreadsheet. The first thing I want to do is reorder the waypoints, and ensure the names are unique. I do this with the Clean Route program.

Cleaning the Route

I open a Command Prompt window, by clicking the Windows icon, clicking on Windows System and Command Prompt. At the command prompt I change directory to Route2019 by typing “cd Route2019”

>cd Route2019

Next, I clean, and reorder the route. I use a starting waypoint of 400 because my previous routes started with 0, 100, 200 and 300. I type “clnrte -s 400 WP-OWW.gpx”. I get a message saying “WP-OWW.gpx” processed to “WP-OWW_cln.gpx”.

>clnrte -s 400 WP-OWW.gpx
"WP-OWW.gpx" processed to "WP-OWW_cln.gpx"

Since I’m here, I will extract the data from the GPX file to a CSV file. I’ll use the CSV file later. I extract the data to a CSV file by typing “gpx2csv WP-OWW_cln.gpx”.  I get a message saying “WP-OWW_cln.gpx” processed to “WP-OWW_cln.csv”.

>gpx2csv WP-OWW_cln.gpx
"WP-OWW_cln.gpx" processed to "WP-OWW_cln.csv"

Importing Cleaned Route

My route is now cleaned up, with unique waypoint names. I import it back into OpenCPN. First I delete the old one by right-clicking on it and selecting Delete… I get a message “Are you sure you want to delete this route?”. I click Yes. Next, I open the Route & Mark Manager and click the Routes tab. I click Import GPX…, select file WP-OWW_cln.gpx. Next, I click on the WP-OWW route that I just imported and click Properties… Some of the original information has been lost or changed. I put West Pass in the Depart From field and Okeechobee Waterway in the Destination field. I change Color from Magenta to Default color and click OK. You might notice that the waypoint name are shown on the display. If this bothers you, you can rerun clnrte, or change the property of each waypoint to uncheck Show name ².

Next, I import the cleaned route back into HomePort. I delete the old route first, to avoid renaming, due to duplicate names. I open HomePort and click on my Route2019 list. Then I right-click on route WP-OWW and select Delete. I get a message saying “Items will be deleted from ALL lists.”, I click Delete. Then, I click File and select Import into Route2019… I select file WP-OWW_cln.gpx and click Open. Then, I right-click on route WP-OWW and select Send To… I click on USERDATA, and then OK to copy the route to my SD card for my chartplotter.

Saving Routes and Waypoints to Chartplotter

Finally, when all the routes are good, I put them on my Garmin 4208 chartplotter. The steps are as follows:

• Exit HomePort, safely eject the Micro SD from the computer and insert it into the SD card adapter.
• Turn on Garmin and select Agree.
• Insert SD card adapter into Garmin.
• Select Manage Card
• Select Replace From Card. (We don’t select Merge From Card because we always keep our Micro SD card up to date.)
• Select USERDATA
• Select Replace From Card.
• The Garmin will say:
  • Receiving User Waypoints
  • Receiving Routes
  • Receiving Tracks
  • User Waypoints Transferred
  • Routes Transferred
  • Tracks Transferred
  • Transfer Complete!

Organizing Routes in a Spreadsheet

When I have all the routes for my trip, I like to organize them in a spreadsheet. You can use Excel or Google Sheets. I use both. The first step is to get a template. I have a shared template on Google Sheets here. Start by copying it to your own spreadsheet. I’ll name mine Route2019. The spreadsheet has a template sheet, named RteFormat. The template has six rows of header. The first step is to customize your template. Change speed of 5.5 in cell D3 to your planned average speed, in knots. Then, change your Start, cell C4, to your planned departure date and time, for example “3/16/2019 7:00”. This field can later be modified for each route.

I keep RteFormat sheet as is, and duplicate it to create a sheet for each route in my trip. To start, I click on the RteFormat sheet and select Duplicate. Then I click on Copy of RteFormat and select Rename... I give the sheet the same name as my route, WP-OWW.

Next, I copy the route information into my sheet. Earlier, I created a file named WP-OWW_cln.csv with the Convert GPX to CSV, utility. Now, I open that file with Excel. I copy all the cells in columns A through F, starting with row 2, by dragging my mouse from corner-to-corner to highlight the data, right-clicking and selecting Copy. Then I go to WP-OWW sheet, right-click on cell A7, and select Paste. Finally, I type the route name, WP-OWW, in cell B1, the starting point, West Pass, in cell B2, and the destination, Okeechobee Waterway, in cell F2. I update the speed, in knots, in cell D3, and the start time, in cell C4, if needed. The other fields in the header are computed by the spreadsheet; Total distance of 60.04 nautical miles, in cell B3. Total time of 10 hours, 55 minutes and 6 seconds, in cell F3. End time and date of 3/16/2019 17:55:02, in cell F4.

Copying Route to ActiveCaptain App

As a final step, I add my route to ActiveCaptain mobile app. This way I can check for hazards, bridges, locks, etc. along my route. The ActiveCaptain app runs on Android or iOS, not Windows, so I use Google Drive to copy my GPX file to my device. There are others apps, such as DropBox, that will work. I open Google drive on my computer and drag wp-oww_cln.gpx to copy it to the Google Drive.

I open Google Drive on my mobile device, and find the GPX file. I select it and, when prompted, open it with ActiveCaptain. The route WP-OWW now appears in User Data.

Summary

We started planning this cruise from Marathon to Moore Haven, and I had the idea of writing about the process that we use. Once I started, I realized it was too long for a single article. I decided to break it into five posts. Even then, some of them are pretty long. There is a lot more I could have written, but I think people can read about what we do and figure out what works best for them. I thought I knew these tools pretty well, but I learned more about them as I wrote the articles. I hope that some of this is helpful to our fellow cruisers.

¹ In OpenCPN version 5.0 there is a waypoint symbol type of anchor, which corresponds to Garmin waypoint symbol anchor.

² In OpenCPN version 5.0, Show name is shortened to Name.