Tag Archives: Route Planning

Planning Multi-Day Cruises—Example

June 7, 2019 Ron Leave a comment

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

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.

Cruising

Planning Multi-Day Cruises—GPX Tools

May 30, 2019 Ron Leave a comment

Note: The tools described in this post have been replaced with a more user-friendly online tool. Go to questeria.info/gpx/ to access this tool.

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. We use a number of tools in the process, some of which I created myself. Below is a snapshot of a spreadsheet with our routes.

This spreadsheet contains seven routes, each on its own sheet. Each sheet contains waypoints, latitudes, longitudes, distances, bearings, durations and times. I will explain how I did this in this series of posts.

The last few posts talked about route planning tools we use before our cruise:

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This post talks about two GPX tools; Clean Route and Convert GPX to CSV. The final post in this series will walk through an example using a route that I created as part of a trip from Florida Keys to Moore Haven, FL, and explain how I put the routes together in a spreadsheet and load them on our Garmin 4208 chartplotter and other devices.

GPX Files

Navigation programs like OpenCPN and HomePort use GPX files to import and export waypoints, routes and tracks. GPX files are a type of XML, eXtended Markup Language file. GPX file are text files—you can view them with a text editor or browser.

GPX files exported from OpenCPN are different than GPX files exported by HomePort and ActiveCaptain. There are enough similarities that they can be imported and used, but you lose or change some information. Some of the differences created by exporting and importing GPX files are easy to correct, but I created the Clean Route program to deal with things that aren’t as easy to fix. I created another program, Convert GPX to CSV, to extract data from a GPX file and put it in a CSV, Comma Separated Value, file that can be read as a spreadsheet.

I created these tools for my own use, and later decided to make them available on my website. Warning—they are not user friendly, but if you’re comfortable using a program without a nice user-interface, you may find these programs useful.

Background For GPX Tools

Some people might call me a dinosaur. I’m a retired software engineer who started before today’s standards were designed. During my career, if I needed a tool that wasn’t available, I created my own. In my personal life, as a boater and cruiser, I do the same. To better understand why I designed these tools the way I did, let’s go back in time to 1975…

I was fresh out of college and working at Bell Labs. I was working on processor diagnostic programs for an Electronic Switching System. I needed a random number generator to do some testing. One of my colleagues told me about a new operating system that Bell Labs had developed. It was called UNIX, and featured a new computer language called C. There was no Graphics, it was all alphanumeric command line. I created my tool, but first, I had to learn the system. Everything was short and cryptic—this was a style I adopted as my own.

As an aside, Unix and C became standards—most modern operating systems and languages, like Linux and C++, are based on them.

In the years that followed, I learned new languages and operating systems. I learned to use a Graphical-User-Interface ( GUI, pronounced Gooey), but I could always fall back to a command line interface when I needed to.

One of the languages I learned along the way is Perl. Perl is a good language for manipulating text files, like GPX files. It is an interpreted language, which means it needs another program to run, but it can run on many types of computers. There are free downloads of Perl available for personal use, such as ActivePerl.

Clean Route

In Planning Multi-Day Cruises—Overview, I talk about how I create a route and then refine it by importing and exporting between programs. The waypoint names, which are automatically assigned, are inconsistent and out of order. The waypoint symbols might be inconsistent and distract from the route. Sometimes waypoint names are displayed—this tends to clutter-up the screen. These are minor issues. I can modify each waypoint using OpenCPN or HomePort, but I wrote the Clean Route utility program to fix this.

The Clean Route program cleans up a route in a GPX file—it reorders the waypoints and cleans up symbols. You can specify the starting waypoint number, and the number of digits in the waypoint number. The default is to change the waypoint symbols to “Waypoint”, but you can specify another symbol name.

Setting Up Clean Route Program

Clean Route is written in Perl, and needs a Perl interpreter, like ActivePerl. To install ActivePerl, open www.activestate.com/products/activeperl/downloads/, and follow the instructions.

Clean Route is downloaded as a ZIP file. Go to questeria.info/toolsutil and click on the clntre.zip link and download the file to your computer.

Installation on Windows

Extract the files into a new or existing folder. The default is “C:\utils”. There are three files:

clnrte.txt — Readme file—short description of Clean Route.
clnrte.pl — Perl Script—requires a Perl interpreter, like ActivePerl.
clnrte.bat — DOS batch file—calls clnrte.pl with command line parameters, makes it easier to run from Command Prompt.

Adding Folder to PATH

Next, add the folder name to your PATH. This step is optional, but it makes it easier to run Clean Route from the command line.

Open File Explorer, right-click This PC.
Click Properties.
In the System Properties window, click the Advanced system settings, and then click Environment Variables...
In the System Variables window, highlight Path, and click Edit...
In the Edit environment variable window, click New.
In the highlighted field, type the full path of the folder for clnrte.bat. For example, C:\utils.
Click OK in all the windows. The new path will be used the next time a Command Prompt is opened.

Modify clnrte.bat to set folder name and/or add any default options. Open File Explorer, find clnrte.bat, right-click and select Edit. Most of the lines start with “REM”. These are comments that explain the function of the file. The important line is as follows:

perl "C:\utils\clnrte.pl" --noverbose %*

“perl” starts the Perl interpreter. “C:\utils\clnrte.pl” is the full path of the Clean Route program. Modify this if clnrte.pl is not in the C:\utils folder. Next, are any default options. You can change defaults here. For example, change “noverbose” to “verbose” or add “–noreorder” or “–nocleansym”. “%*” passes command line options to the Perl script.

Clean Route Syntax

clnrte [options] infile1.gpx [infile2.gpx …[infileN.gpx]]

where, “infile1.gpx infile2.gpx … infileN.gpx” are route files in GPX format. Items in square brackets [ ] are optional. See below for options.

Clean Route Options

The options are Linux-style flags. You can specify a short name with a single dash, or a long name with two dashes. Some of the options have positive and negative, like –reorder and –noreorder. The last option is the one that takes effect. This may be useful for changing a default in the clnrte.bat file (see above), and overriding it from the command line.

–help or -h — Display help message. Clean Route does not run.

–outfile or -o filename — Specify output file name. The default output file name is infile_cln.gpx.

–reorder or -r | –noreorder or -nor— Reorder/don’t reorder waypoint names (default is to reorder).

–start or -s # — Specify starting waypoint number, if reordering (default is 0). If this option is not specified, you will be prompted for a start number.

–digits or -d # — Specify minimum number of digits in waypoint name (default is 3).

–cleansym or -c | –nocleansym or -noc — Clean/Don’t clean waypoint symbols (default is to clean symbols).

—wpsym or –w symname — Waypoint symbol name, if cleaning symbols, (default is ‘Waypoint’)

–verbose or -v | –noverbose or -nov — Verbose/Nonverbose mode. Displays details about the route cleaning. This is used for debugging. Default is –noverbose.

Using Clean Route

You can run Clean Route two ways, from a command prompt or from File Explorer. To run from a Command Prompt, open a Command Prompt window, by clicking the Windows icon, clicking on Windows System and selecting Command Prompt. At the Command Prompt, change directory to the folder with your route GPX file.

>cd \routes

If clnrte.bat is in your PATH, type “clnrte”, otherwise type the full path name, For example “C:\utils\clnrte.bat”. Follow that with any options and one or more route GPX files.

>clnrte [options] routefile1.gpx [routefile2.gpx […routefileN.gpx]]

Items in square brackets [ ] are optional. If you do not specify a starting waypoint number (-s or –start), you may be prompted for one. If Clean Route completes successfully, the cleaned route GPX files will be in “routefileX_cln.gpx” in the same folder.

To run Clean Route from File Explorer, open File Explorer and find the Route GPX file to clean. Right-click on the GPX file, select Open With and Choose another app. Uncheck Always use the app with .gpx files and select More apps. If you see clnrte.bat. select it. Otherwise, select Look for another app on this PC, which will bring up another File Explorer menu. Locate and select clnrte.bat, and click Open. You will get a Command Prompt as follows:

Please enter a waypoint starting number ->

Type a starting number and press enter. The cleaned route will be in file “routefile_cln.gpx” in same folder, unless otherwise specified.

Convert GPX to CSV

The Convert GPX to CSV program extracts information from a GPX file and creates a CSV file that can be opened with a spreadsheet program, like Excel or Google Sheets. In addition to extracting the waypoint name, latitude and longitude, the program calculates the distance (in nautical miles and feet) and bearing between waypoints.

I originally wrote this utility so I could view information from my tracks in a spreadsheet, and look for things like the lowest depth on my track. But later, I modified it to work with routes so I could look at my routes in spreadsheet form.

Setting Up Convert GPX to CSV

Like Clean Route, Convert GPX to CSV is written in Perl, and needs a Perl interpreter. See Setting up Clean Route Program for instructions on setting up ActivePerl.

Convert GPX to CSV is downloaded as a ZIP file. Go to questeria.info/toolsutil and click on the gpx2csv.zip link and download the file to your computer.

Installation on Windows

Extract the files into a new or existing folder. The default is “C:\utils”. There are three files:

gpx2csv.txt — Readme file—short description of Convert GPX to CSV.
gpx2csv.pl — Perl Script—requires a Perl interpreter, like ActivePerl.
gpx2csv.bat — DOS batch file—calls gpx2csv.pl with command line parameters, makes it easier to run from Command Prompt.

Next, add the folder name to your PATH, if you have not done so for Clean Route. See Adding a Folder to PATH for instructions. This step is optional, but makes it easier to run Convert GPX to CSV from the Command Prompt.

Modify gpx2csv.bat to set folder name and/or add any default options. Open File. Explorer, find gpx2csv.bat, right-click and select Edit. Most of the lines start with “REM”. These are comments that explain the function of the file. The important line is as follows:

perl "C:\utils\gpx2csv.pl" --noverbose %*

“perl” starts the Perl interpreter. “C:\utils\gpx2csv.pl” is the full path of the Convert GPX to CSV program. Modify this if gpx2csv.pl is not in the C:\utils folder. Next, are any default options. You can change the defaults here. For example, change “noverbose” to “verbose”. “%*” passes command line options to the Perl script.

Using Convert GPX to CSV

Like Clean Route, you can run Convert GPX to CSV from a Command Prompt or use File Explorer. I normally run Convert GPX to CSV from a Command Prompt right after I run Clean Route. See Using Clean Route and substitute “gpx2csv” for “clnrte”. Here is a screenshot of running Clean Route and Convert GPX to CSV.

Unlike Clean Route, Convert GPX to CSV works on track files from our Garmin chartplotter. Here is a screenshot of the track from the return trip I discussed in Sailing, Anchoring and Apparent Wind.

Screenshot of Track in Excel Spreadsheet

The first column is Latitude, then Longitude, Date, Time, Depth in Feet, Elapsed Time, Distance in Nautical Miles, Distance in Feet, Speed in Knots, and Bearing. The first five columns are from the chartplotter. The last five are calculated by the program.

Organizing Routes in a Spreadsheet

I have a shared template on Google Sheets for organizing routes. Download it by clicking here. Start by copying it to your own spreadsheet. 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.

I keep RteFormat sheet as is, and duplicate it to create a new sheet for my route. To start, click on the RteFormat sheet and select Duplicate. Then click on Copy of RteFormat and select Rename…

Next, open the CSV file with Excel or Google Sheets. Then, select, copy and paste it into the formatted page.

The rows following the header have eleven columns of data as follows:

Waypoint — waypoint name
Latitude — latitude of waypoint
Longitude — longitude of waypoint
NM — distance between this and previous waypoint, in nautical miles
Feet — distance between this and previous waypoint, in feet
Bearing — bearing from previous waypoint to this waypoint in true degrees
Leg Duration — time to get from previous waypoint to this waypoint at specified boat speed
Tot. Duration — time to get from first waypoint to this waypoint at specified boat speed
Time at WP — arrival time at waypoint, based on start time and boat speed
NM to Dest. — distance to destination, in nautical miles
Time to Dest. — time to destination, based on boat speed

Summary

I wrote these tools for myself, but make them available for everyone. They are not required for planning multi-day cruises, but they can make the job easier.

The next, and last post in this series will be an example that puts it all together.

Cruising

Planning Multi-Day Cruises—ActiveCaptain

April 8, 2019 Ron 1 Comment

The previous articles were about:

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This post is about ActiveCaptain. The next post will discuss GPX Tools. Then, I’ll walk through an example using a route that I created as part of a trip from Florida Keys to Moore Haven, FL. and explain how I put the routes together in a spreadsheet and load them on our Garmin 4208 chartplotter and other devices.

ActiveCaptain

ActiveCaptain is essentially an online cruising guide written by cruisers. It was acquired by Garmin in May 2017 and has undergone a lot of changes. Change takes some time getting used to, and I’m still getting used to all of these.

ActiveCaptain Background

We’ve had a long history using ActiveCaptain. We discovered it in about 2010. It was only a website. We used it to share routes with fellow cruisers—the crowd-sourced database was just getting started.

The developers of ActiveCaptain were boaters themselves and did a great job of promoting ActiveCaptain to the boating community. They wrote a weekly email with tips, advice, product reviews and more. It even included a discount for Defender. The crowd-sourced database continued to grow.

They contributed to the boating community in other ways. They developed a free anchor alarm app called Drag Queen and a social networking website called eBoatCards and an app to go with it called Locations. They created a Facebook group, now with over 13,000 members. The crowd-sourced database kept getting better.

The website used Flash, so it didn’t work on mobile devices. We could save and share routes using the website, and we could look at, or update local knowledge, marinas, anchorages and hazards. But we had to have an internet connection. Then, they created a companion app for android, iOS and Windows.

ActiveCaptain Companion

The ActiveCaptain Companion app was designed to be used while underway—it worked without internet access. It used your location to warn you of nearby hazards and show information about local knowledge, anchorages and marinas. The charts included with the app were not very detailed, and couldn’t be used for navigation. You needed to be connected to the internet to initially download the charts and database. Then you could run without internet, until you needed to download updates.

Other Apps and Devices

Shortly after the ActiveCaptain Companion app was developed, the ActiveCaptain database was made available to developers. App developers started integrating it into their navigation apps and chartplotter makers started integrating it into their devices.

One of the companies that jumped on the ActiveCaptain bandwagon was Garmin. They integrated it into their BlueChart app on iOS and their HomePort app for Windows and Mac. After that, we still occasionally used ActiveCaptain Companion while travelling, but more often we used the Garmin BlueChart app on our iPad or iPhones. We used ActiveCaptain on HomePort for planning. We also used MxMariner on our Android tablet to access ActiveCaptain. We didn’t use the website much after that.

Garmin also integrated ActiveCaptain into some of their chartplotters. We didn’t use it on our Garmin 4208 chartplotter. It is supposed to work, if we purchase a Wi-Fi adapter, but we don’t want to put money into a discontinued product. Our next Garmin chartplotter will have ActiveCaptain though.

Acquisition by Garmin

Garmin acquired ActiveCaptain in May of 2017. The website is completely redone. The ActiveCaptain Companion app is gone, but in its place is completely new app for iOS and Android.

The eBoatCards website is gone and the original apps are no longer supported, even though some are still available in the app stores.

Another change is that Garmin’s HomePort product no longer supports ActiveCaptain. I don’t really understand why they did this, but it means that on Windows, our only choice is the website.

The New ActiveCaptain Website

The ActiveCaptain website is completely redesigned. The Markers for Anchorages, Marinas, Hazards, Local Knowledge, etc. are still there, but everything around them is completely new. It no longer uses Flash, so it works on mobile devices. It also has new charts, which are much better than the old ones.

Using the ActiveCaptain Website

The new ActiveCaptain website is activecaptain.garmin.com. If you try to go to the old one, activecaptain.com, you will be redirected to the new one. To start using ActiveCaptain, open your browser and go to activecaptain.garmin.com.

You need to create a free account. If you created an account before May 2017, you have to create one again. To create an account, or sign-in to an existing account, click on the “Head” icon in the upper-right corner, and then click Sign In. You will get a prompt to enter your Email and Password, or a link to create a new account.

Once signed-in, you will be at the Home page. The Home page has information about ActiveCaptain. There is a menu icon (3-bars) in the upper-left, where you can choose Home, Map and Language, and the “Head” icon, in the upper-right, where you can set your Profile or Sign Out. Click on Profile to set your ActiveCaptain Name and preferences.

Click on “Map” to use ActiveCaptain. You will see a chart with a “>” icon on the left and three icons on the right. Click the top one to select chart type, the middle to go to your current location and the bottom one to measure distances on the chart. Click the “>” to open the menu, where you can search, set filters, set sorting preference, add a Marker and show a list of Markers in the current view. Click the “<” to close the menu.

You can view Sonar, Nautical, NOAA, Road or Satellite charts. You can pan the chart by pressing your mouse button and dragging it, or you can use a finger if you have a touch screen. To zoom you can use a scroll wheel, press plus (+) and minus (-) keys or click plus (+) or minus (-) icons. If you have a touchscreen, you can pinch and spread.

The chart has Markers for marinas, anchorages, hazards, etc. If you hover the mouse over an item, the name will be displayed. Click on it to open it.

You can search for a Marker by name. Click the “>” to open the menu, and type the name into the search field.

You can measure distances. Click the dividers icon, and you will get a line connected by two draggable points. Drag the points to measure distance.

The website does not allow you to create any user data (routes and waypoints). You have to use the app for that.

ActiveCaptain App

There is an ActiveCaptain app for iTunes and Google Play. I have installed it on two different devices. The app is similar to the Garmin BlueChart app which, by the way, has been discontinued.

The app is much more powerful than the website. It has much of the same capability as Garmin HomePort on Windows or Mac, with the addition of the ActiveCaptain database. You can create routes and waypoints (user data), import, export and send them to your chartplotter over Wi-Fi.

Installing the ActiveCaptain App

Download the ActiveCaptain App on your Apple or Android device by going to the appropriate app store. A built-in GPS is not required, but if you have one, you’ll have more capability. You have to download Charts and ActiveCaptain Community before you can use it.

Downloading Charts

The charts included with ActiveCaptain are pretty good, but you can purchase better ones if you want to see depths. One challenge for a cruise planning app on a mobile device is the limited amount of storage for charts. ActiveCaptain addresses this by using tiles. You download only the tiles you plan to use.

To load or unload tiles, select Charts, at the bottom of the display, press the 3-bar icon, in the upper-right, and click Download Charts. Here, you can purchase better charts, or select the default charts. Select the chart icon, in the upper-right, to load or unload tiles. Then, pan to the area you are interested in, and tap on tiles to load or unload.

If you purchased charts for Garmin BlueCharts from the Apple store, they will work with the ActiveCaptain app on your Apple device.

Downloading ActiveCaptain Community

Don’t wait until the last minute to download the ActiveCaptain Community. When I first did it, it took me several days. From the Chart screen, press the 3-bar icon, and select Download ActiveCaptain Community. Next, activate Auto Download Updates and press Update Now. When I did this the first time, I got error messages saying the download failed, but several days later it was there. Once the database is loaded, you can un-select Auto Download Updates if you want.

Using the ActiveCaptain App

I don’t have much experience with the ActiveCaptain app, but here are some things that may be helpful. I installed it on my iPhone 7S and my Nexus 10 Android tablet—the tablet screen size is easier to use. I am used to doing my route planning on Windows, but I think, with a little practice, I could get proficient using it on a 10-inch tablet.

The app has three icons across the bottom of the display; Boat Apps, Charts, and Settings. The Boat Apps screen is where you send user data to your chartplotter. The Settings screen is where you set preferences and look for help and support information. The Chart screen is where you make the most of ActiveCaptain.

Screenshot of ActiveCaptain on My iPhone 7S

The Chart screen shows GPS Speed and GPS Heading in the upper-left-hand corner and has icons along the right side of the screen. The top icon, 3-bars, lets you download, set chart options, search and work with user data (routes and waypoints). The next icon lets you choose which chart to view. Then, there is the Plus (+) and Minus (-) icons for zooming. You can also zoom in and out by pinching and spreading the screen. Next, is the “Show Location” icon. pressing this icon will pan to the vessel’s current location, either by GPS or by “Place”. I will discuss “Place” later. The bottom icon looks like an “X” made with a pencil and ruler. It expands into tools for measuring distance, creating a route and creating a waypoint. The measure distance tool functions the same as on the website.

Other tools are activated by what I call the “Donut” menu.

The “Donut” Menu

I call it the “Donut” menu because it looks like a donut that is cut into sections. Each section activates one or more tools. Press anywhere on the chart and you get a “Donut” menu. The top section, or sections of the donut depend on where you press. It lets you open a marker, route, waypoint, or other item. The lower sections let you create a route or waypoint. The bottom section, 3-dots, opens other tools, like show tides, show currents, show notes, Place and more.

Location Services

If your mobile device has a GPS you can use the app for navigation. You must enable Location Services for ActiveCaptain in your device settings. If your device doesn’t have a GPS, you can Place your vessel using the 3-dots of the “Donut” menu. The app will act as if your vessel is at this location until you Return, or Place again. If you Place on a device with a GPS ActiveCaptain will ignore the GPS until you Return. To Return, press on the vessel icon to get a “Donut” menu, select 3-dots, and Return.

Creating Waypoints

To create a waypoint in the ActiveCaptain app, pan to the location and use the “Donut” menu” to create a Waypoint. The Waypoint will have a default name and symbol. To open the Waypoint, press on the top “Donut” section, or the 3-bar icon, User Data, and Waypoints. There, you can rename, choose a symbol, move, delete, add information, etc. for the Waypoint.

Creating Routes

You can create routes on the ActiveCaptain app. Pan to the starting point of the route and press to open the “Donut” menu. Press the route icon to create the first waypoint. Continue pressing on the chart to create additional waypoints for the route. Press Done to end the route. The route and its waypoints will have default names. Press on the route, and select the route in the “Donut” menu, or press the 3-bars icon, User Data, and Routes to open the route. There you can rename it, edit it, delete it, etc.

Importing GPX Files to ActiveCaptain App

You can add routes and waypoints created on other devices, or by other programs, such as HomePort, or OpenCPN to the ActiveCaptain app. You need a way to copy your GPX file to your mobile device. I use Google Drive, but there are others, such as DropBox, that will work just as well. Sometimes you can open the files directly from the Google Drive app on your device, but if that doesn’t work, you might need to copy the file to local storage.

Once you have the GPX file on your mobile device, select it and, when prompted, open it with ActiveCaptain. The routes and/or waypoints should now appear in User Data.

Exporting GPX Files from ActiveCaptain App

You can export your routes and waypoints as GPX files. Press on the 3-bar menu icon in the upper-right of the chart display, choose User Data and press the 3-dots menu icon in the upper-right corner. Select Export to GPX File and choose your method. I use Mail, and send an email to myself. I get a GPX file with all routes and waypoints. You can import the file into HomePort, OpenCPN, or ActiveCaptain on another device to work with the routes and waypoints in the GPX file.

Summary

We have been spending a lot of our time on the RV, and this was the first multi-day cruise we planned since Dry Tortugas. We were aware of some of the changes to ActiveCaptain, but hadn’t looked at it for a while. I was overwhelmed at first, but quickly came to realize how much better it is.

The website works on any desktop or mobile browser. The ability to switch between Sonar, Nautical, NOAA, Street and Satellite charts is a great feature. The app is all-new, packed with features, and very powerful. Garmin has put a lot of effort into a free website and app for the boating community, but the real value is still the ActiveCaptain Community, and that continues to get better.

In the next article of this series, I’ll talk about two GPX tools; Clean Route, and Convert GPX to CSV. The final article in this series will be an example that puts it all together.

Cruising

Planning Multi-Day Cruises—HomePort

March 7, 2019 Ron Leave a comment

In the first post I gave an overview of the route planning process. Then, I talked about OpenCPN. In this post I talk about HomePort and, in future posts I’ll talk about ActiveCaptain and GPX Tools.

Then, I’ll walk through an example using a route that I created as part of a trip from Florida Keys to Moore Haven, FL. Finally, I’ll explain how I put the routes together in a spreadsheet and load them on our Garmin 4208 chartplotter and other devices.

HomePort

We bought a Garmin 4208 chartplotter in 2006 and I was expecting to be able to plan my routes on OpenCPN and send them to my Garmin 4208 chartplotter. At first, I couldn’t make that work. Then, Garmin came out with HomePort. I thought I would be able to use HomePort to plan routes on my computer, but it was harder than I thought. I was not used to the user-interface, and early versions had some bugs. So, I planned my routes on OpenCPN, exported them to HomePort, sent them to an SD card and copied them to our chartplotter. HomePort uses the same charts as the chartplotter and sometimes I would notice things I didn’t see using the NOAA charts in OpenCPN. Then, I started using both programs to edit my routes.

Note: Garmin uses the term “Map” in place of the more nautical term “Chart”. I will continue to use “Chart” in this, and other posts, but they refer to the same thing.

HomePort is free software from Garmin that you can use as a route planning tool. It does not come with charts, you have to copy the charts from your Garmin chartplotter to an SD card.

What I like most about HomePort is that when I create a route, it looks the same as on my chartplotter. When I zoom in and out, the detail of the chart automatically changes, I can easily switch between overview and detail.

Homeport Screenshot — HomePort Screenshot

Here is a screenshot of HomePort with routes. It looks the same on our Garmin chartplotter.

Downloading HomePort

You can start using HomePort by downloading it from the Garmin HomePort Download Page. Go to the page and choose Windows or Mac. Download the executable file, run it and follow the instructions.

When you start it for the first time you’ll see a small-scale global map (chart). It’s not detailed enough for planning routes. You have to copy the built-in charts from your Garmin chartplotter. Also, it will not show any devices until you copy your chartplotter User Data.

Setting Up HomePort

The Garmin 4208 uses a standard SD card to transfer data. Our computer is a Windows tablet, that has a slot for a micro SD card. We have a 16G micro SD card and an adapter that allows it to plug into a standard SD card slot. First, we copy the built-in map to the Micro SD card, and then we copy the User Data. User Data is all routes, tracks and waypoints stored in the chartplotter.

We use the 16G Micro SD card for other things, like NOAA charts for OpenCPN. The card is slightly more than 1/4 used with Garmin files, NOAA charts from six states and the Bahamas, and other miscellaneous files.

Copying the Charts (Map)

I plug Micro SD card into the adapter and then into our Garmin 4208 chartplotter, and select Copy Built-in Map. It takes several minutes to copy the 1.9GB file to the card. I leave the card inserted for the next step.

Copying User Data

Next, I copy the User Data. With the SD card still inserted, I select the Manage Card prompt, and then Save to Card. 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.

When I start HomePort, with the SD card in place, HomePort finds it and shows the charts from our chartplotter and a 4208 device with a file named USERDATA. USERDATA is an ADM file that contains all the routes, tracks and waypoints from our chartplotter.

Using HomePort

The HomePort window contains a menu bar, Toolbar, and three or four panes. The menu bar, along the top of the display, has drop-downs for File, Edit, View, Find, Tools, Device, Utilities, Charts, and Help. The Toolbar has icons for Pan, Zoom, Select, Measure, New Waypoint, New Route, New Track, Insert, Move Point, Erase, Divide, and other actions. The upper-left-hand pane contains Folders, Lists, and Devices. Beside and below that are the Routes, Tracks and Waypoints pane, a Navigation Chart pane, and/or a Fishing Chart pane. The Navigation Chart pane and Routes, Tracks and Waypoints pane may be swapped.

Folder, List and Device Pane

HomePort provides folders and lists for organizing your routes, waypoints and tracks. Folders can contain folders and lists. Lists can contain routes, tracks and waypoints. The top folder is named My Collection. A device is created when you save charts or User Data to an SD card on your computer. We have a device named 4208, with an ADM file named USERDATA, and a chart file. The ADM file contains routes, tracks and waypoints. It’s like a list, but can be transferred to and from our Garmin.

The Folder, List and Device pane is where you select a folder, list or device. Select the top folder, My Collection, to show all your routes, tracks and waypoints, or select a sub-folder or list to show a subset of your routes, tracks and waypoints. Select an ADM file on your device to show routes, tracks and waypoints coming from, or going to your chartplotter. Select a list or ADM file, not a folder, to create or modify routes, tracks or waypoints.

You can adjust the relative size of the Folder, List and Device pane by dragging the bar between it and the lower pane up and down.

Route, Track and Waypoint Pane

The Route, Track and Waypoint pane lists items in the folder, list, or ADM file that is selected in your Folder, List and Device pane. At the bottom of the pane is a search box and a hide/show filters icon. The search box is used to find an item in your selected folder, list or ADM. If Show Filters is enabled, there is a row of icons below the search box to show only certain types of items, for example routes. The selected filter is highlighted with a blue rectangle.

There is a tab between the Route, Track and Waypoint pane and Chart pane that swaps locations of the two panes.

Chart Panes

The Chart pane, or panes show your nautical chart, overlaid with your routes, tracks and waypoints in the selected folder, list or ADM file. You can elect to show a navigation pane, fishing pane or both. I show only the navigation pane when planning a cruise. If both chart panes are shown, you can drag the bar between them left or right to change their relative sizes. Swap the Navigation Chart pane and Route, Track and Waypoint pane by clicking the tab between them.

Zooming

You can zoom the Chart panes in and out when one is selected. I normally use the scroll wheel of my mouse to zoom. You can also use the minus (-) and equal (=) keys on your keyboard. Another way to zoom in and out is to hover the mouse over the triangle in the upper-left of the Chart pane to bring up a slider. Drag the slider up and down to zoom in and out. You can also zoom in by selecting the Zoom tool (magnifying glass icon) and clicking on the chart. If you have a touchscreen, you can pinch and spread. The chart will become more detailed as you zoom in and less detailed as you zoom out.

There is a distance bar in the bottom right of the chart pane that shows the chart detail. It shows a distance in some unit of measure, for example, 500 ft. It changes as you zoom in and out. If you zoom in too much for the chart detail, overzoom will appear under the distance bar.

Menu Bar Actions

The menu bar is across the top of the HomePort window and has the following drop-down tabs:

File — Use the File tab to create new items, import/export, backup/restore, print and exit
Edit — Use Edit to open items, undo, redo, cut, copy, paste, duplicate, delete, rename, send to, move to, etc.
View — The View tab has actions for changing the look of your window. For example, changing the toolbar, or changing to full-screen mode.
Find — The Find tab lets you search for locations, items, etc.
Tools — Activates some of the tools. These tools can also be activated using the Toolbar. See below for a description of some tools.
Device — Send to/receive from an ADM file.
Utilities — Manage boat profiles, check for updates and set program options, such as units of measure.
Charts — Switch charts, buy charts, install charts, etc.
Help — Help, Garmin Forums, Report Chart Error, Check for Software Update, View HomePort License, View Garmin Privacy Policy and About Garmin HomePort.

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Creating New Folders and Lists

HomePort gives you the option to organize your routes, tracks and waypoints using hierarchical folders and lists. For example, you could have a folder for every year, and multiple lists of waypoints, tracks and routes in each folder. Bit we don’t use folders like that, we just have a list for each cruise and one for tracks in the top folder, My Collection.

Every route, track and waypoint within a list or ADM file must have a unique name. This applies to both standalone waypoints and waypoints within a route. HomePort and the Garmin 4208 modifies duplicate names by appending a digit to the end. The Garmin 4208 forces names to uppercase and truncates them to ten characters. After truncating, it will append a digit to ensure no duplicates. The modified names can get confusing, so I try to keep my item names unique, shorter than ten characters, and use different lists for liked-names items.

To create a new folder, select the parent folder in the Folder, List and Device pane. Then, click File, New and List Folder. A new folder will appear in the Folder, List and Device pane. It will have a default name. Type a name for your folder and press Enter. To create a new list, select a folder in the Folder, List and Device pane. Then, click File, New and List. A new list will appear in the Folder, List and Device pane. It will have a default name. Type a name for your list and press Enter.

Tools

There are multiple ways to activate a tool. For example, to activate the waypoint tool, you can click on the flag icon in the Toolbar, click Tools, then Waypoint in the menu bar, click File, New, and Waypoint, or press “W” on your keyboard.

The Toolbar is under the menu bar. The Toolbar has groups of tool icons. The icons include, options to send or receive to/from a device, Pan, Zoom, Select, New Waypoint, New Route, New Track, route and waypoint editing, view options, tide, current and others. Some of these tools can be activated using the menu bar Tools drop-down. When you activate a tool, the cursor will change to indicate which tool is active. Deactivate the tool the same way you activated it, or by selecting another tool.

Select Tool

The Select tool is the default tool. Activate it by clicking the pointer icon or pressing “S” on the keyboard. Use the select tool to select a route, track or waypoint on the Chart pane.

Pan Tool

To pan, select the Pan tool (hand icon or “H”). The cursor will change to a hand. Hold the mouse and drag the spot around the Chart pane. The Pan tool can sometimes be used to select items on the Chart pane.

Creating a Waypoint

To create a waypoint, select a list in the Folder, List and Device pane. Then, activate the Waypoint tool (flag icon or “W”). The cursor will change to a flag. Click on the Chart pane to create a new waypoint. Deactivate the Waypoint tool by clicking Waypoint (flag) icon or pressing “W”, the Pan tool will be activated. A new waypoint will appear in the Routes, Tracks and Waypoints pane. HomePort will assign a name and symbol to the waypoint. Double-click on the waypoint in the Chart pane or Route, Track and Waypoint pane to open the waypoint. There, you can rename the waypoint, choose a symbol, edit the position and set other options for the waypoint.

Creating a Route

To create a route, select a list in the Folder, List and Device pane. Then, activate the Route tool (Three squares connected with a line icon or “R”). The cursor will change to a pencil. Click on the Chart pane to create the starting waypoint. Move the cursor and click to create the next waypoint. Continue creating waypoints until you reach the end of your route, or the edge of the Chart pane. Deactivate the Route tool by clicking the Route icon or pressing “R”. The Pan tool will be activated. Click the Route icon or press “R” again to continue adding waypoints to your route. A new route will appear in the Routes, Tracks and Waypoints pane. HomePort will assign a name to the route. Double-click on the route in the Chart pane or Route, Track and Waypoint pane to open the route. There you can rename the route and set other options.

Route and Waypoint Editing Tools

For me, creating a route is an iterative process. I start at a high-level, create a few waypoints and zoom in and refine. Select the route or waypoint to edit by clicking on the item or name. There are four tools for editing the selected item. If you make a mistake, you can undo it by clicking Edit, Undo, or pressing Ctrl-Z on your keyboard.

Insert Waypoint

Use the Insert tool to add waypoints to an existing route. First, select the route by clicking on the name. Then, activate the Insert tool by clicking the Insert icon (+ and Pen) or pressing “I” on the keyboard. The cursor will change to a Pen+. Next, click on the route where you want to insert a waypoint. Then, move the cursor to where you want the waypoint to be and click. A new waypoint is now added to the route. Continue inserting waypoints as desired. Exit the Insert tool by clicking the Insert icon or pressing “I”. The Pan tool will be activated.

Move Waypoint

Use the Move Point tool to move a standalone waypoint, or a waypoint in a route. First, select the route or waypoint by clicking on the name. Then, activate the Move Point tool by clicking the Move Point icon (Pointer and Square) or pressing “M” on the keyboard. The cursor will change to a Pointer and Square. Next, hover the cursor over the waypoint to be moved. The waypoint will be highlighted. Then, click and drag the cursor to where you want the waypoint to be and release the mouse button. The waypoint is moved.

Erase Waypoint

Use the Erase tool to remove waypoints from an existing route. First, select the route by clicking on the name. Then, activate the Erase tool by clicking the Erase icon (Eraser and Square) or pressing “E” on the keyboard. The cursor will change to an eraser. Next, hover the cursor over a waypoint in the selected route. The waypoint will be highlighted. Then, click to remove the highlighted waypoint from the route.

Divide Route

Use the Divide tool to split an existing route into two or more routes. First, select the route by clicking on the name. Then, activate the Divide tool by clicking the Divide icon (Scissors) or pressing “X” on the keyboard. The cursor will change to a pointer and scissors. Next, hover the cursor over the selected route, where you want to split it. The last part of the route will be highlighted. Then, click to split the route into two routes. You now have another route in your list. Exit the Divide tool by clicking the Divide icon or pressing “X”.

Other Useful Actions

Here are some common actions performed with the File or Edit drop-down menu bar.

Deleting or Removing an Item

You can delete or remove anything you can create. For example, folders, lists, routes, waypoints, etc. In general, you click on the item to be deleted to select it. Then, you click Edit, in the menu bar and look for options to delete or remove. You can also right-click on the item. To delete a route, track or waypoint, you must have a List or ADM file, not a Folder, selected in the Folder, List and Device pane. You may have the option of removing the item from the selected list, or deleting it everywhere. When removing a folder, list or ADM file, you may be given the option to Remove and Delete Unique Content, or just Remove. If you delete or remove something by mistake, click Edit, Undo to restore it.

Duplicating an Item

To duplicate a folder, list route, waypoint, etc., click on the item to select it. Then, click Edit and Duplicate. HomePort will assign a default name to the duplicate item. I sometimes duplicate a route and edit it to create an alternative.

Renaming an Item

To rename an item, click on the item. Then, click Edit and Rename, type the new name and press Enter.

Sending or Moving an Item

Use Send To… to copy items to lists or ADM files. First, select the item to be copied by clicking on it. Then click Edit and Send To… You will get a menu of folders, lists and ADM files to select your destination. Use Edit, Move To… to move a list to another folder.

Joining Routes and Tracks

You can join multiple routes or tracks into one. We use this feature to create a new route from two or more routes, or one track from multiple tracks from the same day that were created when our GPS lost and regained its signal. First, select all the routes or tracks to join by clicking on the names while pressing the Ctrl key. Then, click Edit, Advanced, and Join the Selected Routes… or Join the Selected Tracks… You will see a menu that allows you to choose the order of the routes or tracks. Click Ok when ready.

Exporting GPX Files

Share routes tracks and waypoints with other programs as GPX files. Select the route, track or waypoint to be exported. Then, click File, Export, and Export Selection… A file explorer menu will come up to specify where to store the file.

Importing GPX Files

You can import GPX files on your computer that were created by HomePort or other programs. First select the List that you want to import the route, track or waypoint into. Then, click File and Import to ‘list name’… You will get a File Explorer menu. Select the file to import and click Open. You will see the new routes, tracks or waypoints in the selected list.

Transferring To/From Chartplotter

The Garmin 4208 has limited memory for routes, tracks and waypoints. Therefore, we don’t store routes that we don’t plan to use right away. When track memory fills up, it will overwrite the oldest track, so at the end of the day, we save our tracks to HomePort. When we anchor in a new spot, we like to save a mark and copy it to HomePort as well. To ensure they are both in sync, we copy USERDATA to our SD card every time we stop for the day. Then, we copy any new items to HomePort and organize them in lists. We edit any new waypoints, remove any routes that we are finished with, replace any routes that have been modified and add any new items we might want. Then we write it back to the Garmin 4208.

We have a list that is only for completed tracks. We send any new tracks to the list, and combine them into one track per day. Then we rename them to trackYYYYMMDD (year, month and date) so we can go back and find them later.

The steps we use to copy data from the Garmin are:

Exit HomePort, safely remove Micro SD card from computer and insert it into adapter.
Turn on Garmin and select Agree.
Insert SD card adapter into Garmin.
Select Manage Card
Select Save To Card
Select USERDATA Save To Card
Select Yes to Overwrite this file: USERDATA
The Garmin will say:
- Preparing Card
- Transferring User Waypoints
- Transferring Routes
- Transferring Tracks
- Card Prepared
- User Waypoints Transferred
- Routes Transferred
- Tracks Transferred
- Transfer Complete!
You can eject the SD card from the Garmin unit.

Next, we insert the Micro SD card into the computer, and start HomePort. Select USERDATA, under 4208 device and we can see an exact copy of what is in our chartplotter. New waypoints will probably have default names and symbols, so we edit those. New tracks will have default names, we send those to the Tracks list, where we combine and rename them. If we have modified any routes or waypoints on the Garmin, we send them to our working list. Next, we update USERDATA with any new routes or waypoints. If we have any changes to routes or waypoints, we remove the old ones from USERDATA and send the updated items. Otherwise, HomePort treats them as duplicates and renames.

We copy the data back to the Garmin before we move the boat again. The steps are:

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!

Our Garmin chartplotter is now in sync with HomePort and ready for our next trip.

Summary

HomePort has many features. I’ve used it for a number of years, but I discovered new things about it when writing this article. The Garmin charts are excellent, and you can zoom and pan seamlessly. If you have a Garmin chartplotter that is compatible with HomePort, I encourage you to try it — you have nothing to lose.

The next article in this series talks about ActiveCaptain. Later articles include GPX Tools and an example that puts it all together.

Cruising

Planning Multi- Day Cruises—OpenCPN

February 14, 2019 Ron Leave a comment

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

In the post titled Planning Multi-Day Cruises—Overview, I gave an overview of the route planning process. In this post I talk about OpenCPN. In future posts, I’ll talk about other route planning tools we use before our cruise:

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OpenCPN

OpenCPN is a free software project that you can use as a chartplotter or route planning tool. It does not come with charts, but it works with different kinds of charts, that can be downloaded for free.

Here is a screenshot of OpenCPN with some routes, tracks and waypoints.

Setting Up OpenCPN

Start using OpenCPN by downloading it from the OpenCPN download page. Click on the download for your computer type and open the executable file to install OpenCPN on your computer. OpenCPN has very good offline and online help and documentation. But it is intuitive, so you can probably get by without it.

Downloading Charts for OpenCPN

Next, you have to download charts for your cruising area. If your cruise is in the US, you can use free NOAA, and/or Army Corps of Engineers charts. You need to decide on RNC charts², ENC charts, or both.

Large Scale vs. Small Scale

If you pick a particular point near the coast, it will be covered by multiple charts of different scales, from Large Scale to Small Scale. A Large Scale chart has more detail and covers less area, while a Small Scale Chart covers more area with less detail.

RNC Charts²

RNC, or Raster Navigational Charts, look like paper charts. They are organized by chart numbers, which are 2 to 5 digit numbers. The numbers are in no particular order, so you need a catalog or locator to know what RNC chart to use. Some disadvantages of RNC charts are that they take more storage and are not updated as often as ENC charts. You must use the units of measure, for the chart. For example, if the chart is in feet, you can’t view it in meters.

ENC Charts

ENC, or Electronic Navigational Charts, take much less storage than RNC charts. For example, ENC charts for FL are 60M versus 128M for RNC charts. ENC files have alphanumeric names that tell you the state and coast guard district number, such as US4FL10M. ENC charts have more viewing options. There are fewer charts for small and large scale, so you can zoom in and out without changing charts. NOAA updates ENC charts more often than RNC charts. You can specify a unit of measurement preference for ENC charts. For example, you can display depth in feet, meters or fathoms. I prefer the look of RNC charts over ENC charts. That is because I started off with paper charts, but I use both when planning a route.

Charts for Bahamas

If you want charts for the Bahamas, you’ll need to purchase NV Chart Combo Packs. You pay for a paper chart book and also get a CD of electronic RNC charts that are identical to the paper charts.

Chart Downloader

The current version of OpenCPN includes a Chart Downloader. This was not available when I started using OpenCPN, so I still use the manual method. You’ll need to use the manual method for NV Charts for the Bahamas. To get to the Chart Downloader, first click the Options tab (the wrench or cogwheel icon¹). Then, click Charts and Chart Downloader. Next, click Add and select the charts for your cruising area. For example, USA – NOAA and Inland charts, RNC, by States, FL – Florida.

Manually Downloading Charts

If you use the manual method, and your cruise is in the US, you can download RNC and ENC charts from the NOAA chart website. I store them in a folder named charts, on a micro SD card that is always plugged into my computer. I do this because my computer is a Windows tablet, with limited drive space. When I first started out, I created a new folder by opening a File Explorer menu, finding my SD card, Secure Storage Device (D:), right-clicking on it, selecting New and Folder. Then, I right-clicked on New Folder, selected Rename and named it charts. I like to keep each state in a separate folder. So, I right-clicked on charts, selected New and Folder. Then, I renamed New Folder to something like FL_RNCs. I made another folder for the ENC charts, like FL_ENCs and then an RNC and ENC folder for every state I was interested in.

I now have a subfolder for ENCs and RNCs for each state we might cruise in. It’s not important how your charts are organized on your computer, because OpenCPN will figure it out. You just need to remember the full path name of the top directory, or directories of your unzipped chart files. In my case this is D:\charts.

Both types of charts are downloaded as ZIP files. You can download them as individual files, or groups organized by coast guard districts, states or regions. I like to download them by state. First, I go to the NOAA chart website and click on RNCs or ENCs. Next, I find ENCs/RNCs by State and click on the desired state. This downloads a zip file to my computer. Then, I extract it by right-clicking on it and selecting Extract All… This brings up a File Explorer menu. I click Browse… and select the desired folder, for example D:\charts\FL_RNCs, and click Extract.

For my Bahamas charts, I have a subfolder in charts named Bahamas. I installed my NV Charts from the CDs there.

When we are starting to plan a cruise, I download updated charts and extract them to the appropriate folder, overwriting everything.

OpenCPN Settings

When you download new charts, you must tell OpenCPN where they are.

Chart Settings

Once all the charts are downloaded and extracted, you need to go into settings and customize OpenCPN. The first thing to set is the charts directory. To get to the Chart Directory, first click the Options tab in the Toolbar (the wrench or cogwheel icon¹), or Tools in the menu tab and Options… Next, click Charts and Chart Files. Then, click Add Directory… and select your charts directory. In my case, D:\charts. You can add multiple directories if needed. Click Apply when all chart directories are added. Next, click to check the Scan Charts and Update Database and Force Full Database Rebuild boxes, and click Apply. You can skip this step if you use the Chart Downloader. As a final step, click Prepare All ENC Charts. This must be done every time you download updated charts. Next, click the Vector Chart Display tab and choose your preferences.

After setting your chart options, you can start using OpenCPN to create routes and waypoints, but there are other preferences you might want to set.

Connections

If you want to use OpenCPN as a chartplotter or for AIS, you have to set up connections. To get to the Connections menu, click on the wrench or cogwheel icon¹ or Tools and Options… And then, Connections. We don’t normally use OpenCPN as a chartplotter because our Garmin 4208 is easier to see in sunlight and it’s weatherproof. But we have OpenCPN setup as a chartplotter in case we need it as a backup. Our Windows tablet doesn’t have a built in GPS, so we use an external GPS that plugs into a USB port. We can also plug in our Garmin AIS 600 transponder. See my post titled AIS, to read about connecting OpenCPN to our Garmin AIS 600.

The connections settings can be challenging because every computer is different, but here are some tips for setting an external GPS and AIS on a Windows computer:

Open Windows Device Manager on your computer before plugging in your external GPS or AIS.
Click Ports (COM & LPT) to expand.
Plug in your external GPS and look for a new device. Mine is named Prolific USB-to-Serial Comm Port (COM3).
In OpenCPN connections, click Add Connection, check Serial, then click the ∨, in the DataPort field, and select the corresponding item. For example, COM3 Prolific USB-to-Serial Comm Port.
Set Baudrate to 4800, Priority to 1 and click Apply.
Do the same thing for your AIS connection, except set Baudrate to 38400 and Priority to 5.

If your GPS is working, you should see one or more green bars in the upper right-hand side of your display. You will also see your Ship Latitude and Longitude in the lower left-hand corner.

Other Settings and Options

There are other settings and options you can choose based on your personal preferences or your computer. To get to these settings, click the Options tab in the Toolbar (the wrench or cogwheel icon¹), or Tools menu bar tab and Options… You get a menu with six icons along the top. I’ve already discussed Chart and Connections. Here are the other option categories:

Display — Select the General tab to set some general options, like Navigation Mode and Default Boat Speed. Select the Units tab to choose distance, speed and depth units and Lat/Long display preferences.
Ships — Own ship tab lets you set options for your vessel. AIS Targets tab lets you set options for other vessels. MMSI Properties lets you set options for other vessels based on their MMSI, Maritime Mobile Service Identity, number.
User Interface is for setting languages and other UI options, such as Show Menu Bar. If Show Menu Bar is checked you get a traditional menu bar at the top of the display. The menu bar is mostly redundant because you can perform the functions using the Toolbar. There is also a Show Chart Bar box. If checked, there will be a row of rectangles at the bottom of the display. Each rectangle lets you select a chart, going from left to right, large scale to small scale. I like to have that checked.
Plugins lets you install other products that work with OpenCPN. Refer to opencpn.org/OpenCPN/info/downloadplugins.html about available plugins.

A few words about Lat/Long settings… When I took piloting classes, we used Degrees, Minutes and Seconds (dd° mm’ ss”) for latitudes and longitudes. Now, with more sophisticated electronics, I often see them expressed as Degrees and Decimal minutes (dd° mm.mmm’) or Decimal Degrees (dd.ddddd°). The OpenCPN lat/long format setting is for display only — you can enter them in any valid format. Use a space to separate degrees, minutes and seconds. You can enter the direction as “N”, “S”, “E”, “W”, “+” or “-” (“+” for north and east, “-” for south and west). You can even copy or paste a latitude and longitude pair into OpenCPN in a single step. You can change Lat/Long display preferences to easily convert between formats.

Navigating OpenCPN

Here are some tips for navigating OpenCPN. (No pun intended.) On OpenCPN there are usually multiple ways to do the same thing. For example, to zoom in and out you can:

Click Zoom In and Zoom Out on the Navigate menu bar ³
Press plus (+) and minus (-) keys on your keyboard
Click plus (+) and minus (-) icons on the Toolbar
Roll the scroll wheel on your mouse
If you have a touch screen, you can pinch and spread the screen

Since there are multiple ways to do things, I normally don’t show the menu bar, I use the Toolbar. I have a touchscreen, but I usually use my two-button mouse, with a scroll wheel, to do everything I want.

Zooming in to a Particular Point on a Chart

If enabled, there is a row of rectangles along the bottom of the display. Each rectangle corresponds to a chart for the area displayed. They are arranged from left to right, Large Scale (more detail, less area) to Small Scale (less detail, more area). You can click on rectangles in the chart bar to switch to different charts. If you right-click on a rectangle, it gives you information about the chart, and a preview. The blue rectangles are RNC charts, the green are ENC charts. The blue rectangles with a red line through it are RNC charts for a waterway.

You can also switch between Large Scale charts and Small Scale charts by clicking on the Down Arrow (larger) or Up Arrow (smaller) icons on the Toolbar, or you can also use F7 (larger) and F8 (smaller) keys on your keyboard ⁴.

To find a particular spot on a chart, zoom-out to a wide view and select a scale chart that covers the area. Find the approximate point and hold the mouse button and drag it to the center of the display. Then, right-click on an area without a route, track, waypoint, etc., and select Max Detail Here ⁵ or click on the left-most rectangle in the chart bar. If you don’t see Max Detail Here, you are selecting an item, so right-click on a nearby spot until you see Max Detail Here, and click on it. OpenCPN will switch to the largest scale chart for that location in your chart directory. You can then zoom in to see your spot. If your spot is not there, recenter and repeat. If you zoom in too much for the chart, you will see OverZoom in top-left of your display. You can switch to a larger scale chart, or zoom out in that case.

Creating a Waypoint

To create a waypoint right-click on the spot and select Drop Mark. Double-click on the waypoint to bring up its properties menu. There, you can name it, select an icon, or change its location, etc. Click on it to select it. When it’s highlighted you can hold the mouse button and drag it around on the chart. To delete it, right-click on it and select Delete.

Creating a Route

A route is essentially a series of ordered waypoints. To create a new route, you click the Create Route icon (the first zigzag line icon in the Toolbar, or a pen and lines in version 5.0+). The cursor will change to a pen. Click on the starting point and then on the next point. Continue clicking until the end point is reached, or you get to the edge of the display. End the route by right-clicking and selecting End Route, or click on the Create Route icon (the first zigzag line), or Show Tool Bar (three horizontal lines) in version 5.0+ ⁶. Finally, right-click on the route and select Properties…, to name and document the route.

Editing a Route

For me, creating a route is an iterative process. When I first create a route, I use a small scale chart, zoom-out to a high-level and create a few waypoints. Then I zoom-in, switch to a larger scale chart, and edit it to a finer detail. I spend most of my route planning time editing. Here are tools available for editing a route:

Inserting a Waypoint — Right-click where you want to insert the waypoint and select Insert Waypoint.
Appending a Waypoint — Right-click anywhere on the route and select Append Waypoint. The cursor will change to a pen. Click on the next location on the chart. Continue clicking to keep appending waypoints. When finished, right-click and select End Route, or click the first zigzag line icon or Show Toolbar icon.
Moving a Waypoint — Click on the waypoint you want to move — it will be highlighted when selected. With the cursor over the highlighted waypoint, hold the mouse button down and drag the waypoint to where you want it. If you move a waypoint by mistake, right-click and select Undo Move Waypoint. If you want to move the waypoint to a specific latitude and longitude, double-click on the waypoint and edit the latitude and longitude fields.
Deleting a Waypoint — Right-click on the waypoint you want to delete and select Delete. This removes the waypoint from the route and deletes it.
Removing a Waypoint from Route — Right-click on the waypoint you want to remove and select Remove from Route. This removes the waypoint from the route but does not delete it.
Reversing the Route — Right-click on the route and select Reverse… You will get a pop-up asking if you want to rename the waypoints, select Yes, No or Cancel.
Splitting the Route — Right-click on the route and select Properties… You will get a Route Properties menu. Click on the waypoint where you want to split the route into two routes. Then click Split Route. You will now have two routes, one with a “_A” on the name and the other with a “_B” on the name.

Route and Mark Manager

The two rectangles icon, or the second zigzag line icon, in older versions is the Route and Mark Manager. Clicking this icon brings up a menu that shows all routes, tracks or waypoints. You can do things like modify properties or delete items. You can also import and export routes, tracks and waypoints to/from your computer.

Managing Routes

Select the Routes tab in the Routes and Marks Manager to manage your routes. You will see a list of your routes, the names and their Depart From and Destination fields. To the left of the route name is an eyeball. Clicking on the eyeball will toggle between showing and not showing the route on the chart. There is a line of buttons along the right side of the display. These are actions to perform on a selected route, and are grayed-out if no route is selected. Along the bottom of the display are buttons not associated with a selected route, Import GPX…, Export All Visible… and OK. Select a route by clicking on it. You can perform actions on the selected route:

Properties… — This is the same as double-clicking on the route.
Activate — Navigate to this route when using OpenCPN as a chartplotter.
Center View — Center the display on this route.
Reverse — Swap Depart From with Destination.
Delete — Delete this route.
Export Selected… — This action exports the selected route to your computer as a GPX file. It brings up a File Explorer menu to specify where the GPX file is stored.
Send to GPS — Sends selected route to chartplotter, over serial port, if your chartplotter supports this function and is connected.
Delete All — I don’t use this button.

Importing a GPX File

If you want to import a route into OpenCPN that is saved on your computer as a GPX file, click Import GPX… This brings up a File Explorer menu so you can select the GPX file to be imported. Select the file and click Open. If the GPX is a valid route file, you will see at least one new route in your list. It will be named for the route name, not necessarily the same as the file name. If you already have a route of the same name, they will both be shown. If there are more than one route in the GPX file, they will all be shown. If the imported route does not show up in the route list, it could be a waypoint or track GPX file, in which case it will be in one of those lists, or the GPX file could be corrupted. OpenCPN will not tell you if you try to import a corrupted GPX file.

Exporting GPX Files

I talked about exporting a single, selected route above. Here I talk about exporting multiple routes. Export All Visible… will export all route in the list to your computer. Clicking it will bring up a File Explorer menu to specify where the GPX file is stored on your computer. Only routes that are shown will be exported. Routes with a red “X” through the eyeball will not be exported. This is a good method of backing-up all your routes. Another way to export multiple routes is to select the routes by clicking on the routes you want to export while holding down the ctrl key, and then clicking Export Selected.

Managing Tracks

A track is similar to a route, except that it is based on actual travel. When you click on the Tracks tab in the Route and Mark Manager you see a list of tracks listed by name and length. You can click on the eyeball icon to the left of the track name to toggle showing and not showing the track.

On Questeria, we save our tracks from our Garmin 4208 chartplotter to an SD card. Then, we import them into HomePort. Next, we rename the tracks to show the date and export them to the computer, as a GPX file. We don’t import every track into OpenCPN, but sometimes we want to look at one and use it to refine our route. Importing a track into OpenCPN is just like importing a route. Click Import GPX… and select the GPX file of the track.

If you use OpenCPN as a chartplotter, you can start a new track by clicking Start Track. You can perform many of the same actions as routes, like Properties, Delete, Export, etc.

Another action available is to create a route from a track. Just click Route from Track and OpenCPN will create a route. I don’t use this feature because, in my opinion, the route has too many waypoints. I think it is easier to create a new route, using the track as a guideline.

Managing Waypoints

Select the Waypoints tab in the Routes and Marks Manager to manage your waypoints. You will see a list of your waypoints, their names and their distance from your location. To the left of the route name is the icon for the waypoint, such as an anchor or a diamond. The actions you can perform on a selected waypoint are the same as a route.

We like to have the same waypoints on OpenCPN and HomePort. We import and export to keep the two programs in sync. Importing and exporting waypoints works the same as importing and exporting routes and tracks

Summary

There is a lot more to OpenCPN than what I have described here. It’s pretty easy to use once you start. The documentation is excellent, if you are the kind of person who likes to read manuals, but if you aren’t, it’s pretty easy to figure out. If you make a mistake, you can undo it or delete, and start over. Export your routes, tracks and waypoints periodically to save your work.

In the next post of this series, I will talk in detail about HomePort. Then, in future posts, I’ll talk about ActiveCaptain, GPX tools and putting it all together with an example.

Footnotes Addressing OpenCPN 5.0+

¹ OpenCPN version 5.0 replaced the wrench icon with a cogwheel icon.

² NOAA Raster Nautical Charts (RNC) are being discontinued. Click here for more details.

³ Zoom-in/out buttons are gone in OpenCPN version 5.0.

⁴ Scale up/down buttons are gone in OpenCPN version 5.0. Instead, use the rectangles in the chart bar, or right-click and select Scale In or Scale Out.

⁵ In OpenCPN 5.0, Max Detail Here will take you to your boat location. Instead, click on the desired location and then on the left-most rectangle in the chart bar at the bottom of the display.

⁶ In OpenCPN version 5.0 the tool bar is hidden when creating a route. You can click the Show Toolbar icon (three horizontal lines) to end the route.

Cruising

Planning Multi-Day Cruises—Overview

January 25, 2019 Ron Leave a comment

In this post I give an overview of the route planning process. In future posts, I’ll talk about route planning tools we use before our cruise:

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Initial Planning Intentions

When we start planning a multi-day cruise , we know our starting and ending points, but we might not know all the places we want to stop along the way. We might have some favorite anchorages or marinas along the way, or maybe a new place we want to explore. At this stage of planning, we think about how long we want to travel in one day. Travel time depends on boat speed and distance, but can vary greatly by current, wind and other factors. We also consider delays waiting for things like bridge openings. Weather is a big unknown. We have left an anchorage at the crack of dawn, and had to stop and wait for fog to clear. Then there’s Murphy’s Law — Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. With boating, you can never plan your trip exactly. We make intentions instead of plans.

From experience, we have found that leaving the dock can be the hardest part of the trip. There is always “one more thing” we forgot about. So, the first day we don’t plan to travel very far. After that, we get into a routine, and plan for longer days. We look at sunrise and sunset times on our chartplotter to take advantage of daylight hours. At the start of the day, we have a rough idea of where we want to stop, but we won’t decide until later, based on our progress during the day.

We learned early on, that our plans must be very flexible. It usually takes longer to get from point A to point B, than we think it will. The set of routes we make ahead of time are outdated by the first day of the cruise, but they are still useful.

I do our initial route planning on Windows. A few years ago, I transitioned from a laptop PC to a Windows tablet, with a docking station, mouse and portable keyboard. I find that this works best for my lifestyle. I could do planning on a Android or iOS tablet, but I have an easier time with a two-button mouse.

Route Planning Tools

My preferred tool for planning a route is OpenCPN. My second choice is Garmin’s HomePort, but I use them both. I prefer the user-interface of OpenCPN and I prefer the the look of HomePort, but that is mostly personal preference. I can import/export routes between OpenCPN and HomePort, but I must use HomePort to load the routes on my 4208 Garmin chartplotter.

When we first started cruising we bought a lot of cruising guides, like Managing the Waterway and Skipper Bob books. Now, we use ActiveCaptain. ActiveCaptain is a crowd-sourced database of navigational hazards, anchorages, marinas and more. It is essentially a cruising guide, written by cruisers, that is always up to date.

ChartPlotter

We have a Garmin 4208 chartplotter that we bought in 2006. It is now discontinued, but we are not ready to upgrade. It doesn’t have a fancy touch screen or WiFi, but it works just fine for us. It uses an SD card to transfer data to and from the computer.

Route Planning Process

We might cruise to get from one place to another, like our trip to Moore Haven, FL, or, like our trip to the Bahamas , we might just want to experience a place and come back home. Either way, we determine how long we want to take, and decide on places we might want to stop on the way.

Waypoints

First, we create waypoints for our cruise. We use ActiveCaptain to look for anchorages and marinas. Then, we use OpenCPN and HomePort to create waypoints for the places we found in ActiveCaptain.

Routes

For me, creating a route is an iterative process. First, I create a simple route, with a few waypoints. Then I zoom in and add, move or extend waypoints. I keep zooming in and modifying the route until I am happy with it. I export and import it between tools and look at it on different charts.

GPX Tools

When I am happy with all my routes I clean it up with the Clean Route tool, so it looks the same on OpenCPN, HomePort, my chartplotter, and ActiveCaptain. Then I create a Comma Separated Values, CSV, file that can be copied to a spreadsheet.

Chartplotter

The last step is to put all the routes and waypoints on our Garmin 4208 chartplotter. I also import them to a mobile device running the ActiveCaptain app. We are now ready to cruise.

In the next post of this series I will talk in detail about HomePort. Then, in future posts I’ll talk about ActiveCaptain, GPX tools and putting it all together with an example.