Bluechart Americas Puget Sound question

T

TimOb

New member
I just bought the Bluecharts Americas cd, but prolly should have done a bit more homework first. The cd has Canada west regular and large charts. The regular covers the inside passage east of Vancouver island, but not puget sound, the large does the same, but also puget sound.

This is for a handheld chart plotter, which handles micro SD cards. On the micro SD offerings, it looks like there is one that gives me what I need, but I don't think you can load those charts onto a pc.

I guess the answer to this question is to just get the micro SD card.

Just looking to see what others have done.

Thanks,
Tim
 
I have a Garmin 492 which has all of the US charts, but no Canadian, so I got the Garman BlueChart G2 chip for Canada--There are two of the large series. One goes from S. Puget Sound to the end of Vancouver Island, the other goes from the Straits of San Juan de Fuca to Alaskian boarder. I got the one which goes from San Juan to Alaska. (2CA501L)

The 2CA500 will cover from S. PugetSound to the end of Vancouver. But, You amy want to get the one which goes to Ak, if you have aspirations for that trip.

This is one of my objections to Garmin's charts. The Navionics I have for the same Canadian area, covers the entire area from S. Puget Sound to into Alaska.
 
Like Bob, I too have the Navionics chip (13xg) that covers from Puget sound to Alaska, and was really hoping to find a bluechart that does the same thing - or at least close to it.
So, now I'm going to start searching for a handheld (other than Garmin) that might cover the same area, not too hopeful though.

Tim
 
Looks like the bluenav xl3 charts for puget sound are similar if not identicle to the bluecharts chart....

fyi - the bluenav xl3 charts are for Magellan handhelds and are derived from Navionics charts.
 
BlueCharts America are a Garmin product. The initial post mentioned Blue Charts America--thus our assumption that you mean Garmin.

BlueNav is a Magellan product. Do you have only a Magellan product?

You are correct that Magellan products are derived from Navionics Gold cartography. Are you sure that your hand held uses micro SD, or regular SD cards? I don't see any micro SD cards in the line up of Magellan products. Maybe I have missed them. The ones which I see are relitatively limited ones of BC. There is Northern BC and Vancouver Island on the 3XL series--all of the maps are covered in the apparently expensive small map series.
 
The handheld I bought is a garmin gpsmap 76cx, and I'm really trying to decide whether or not to keep it. I bought it with the understanding that the bluecharts America CD would have the chart I wanted. Seeing as I didn't even open the packaging, I'm leaning toward returning it.

If the Bluecharts Americas CD had what I want, it would be a no brainer. Looks like Bluecharts/Garmin is forcing you to get the micro sd card (higher cose) for a chart that has significantly less coverage than the Navionics chart for my Raymarine.

And to top it off, it looks to me that bluenav and bluecharts have done the exact same thing for puget sound. I'm wondering if this is a technical or marketing issue.

Tim
 
Tim,
Thanks for the explaination. One of the issues is Canadian charts. The HO office Canada subjugated their charts to NDI. Each chart which has Canadian charts has to pay a royality to NDI. The US chart data base is free. Each company may or may not make changes as they put out their charts for the US.

This is probably the main reason that the entire West Coast is not in the Garmin Chart.

The Navionics chip for the West Coast--as well as the Garmin hard drives and many others will have all of the West coast, and Hawaii on one chip--but none of Canada....(or what they have is what is on NOAA database.)

With the competition in charts, they are cheaper and larger areas are covered. All except Canada!

There are lots of chart plotters to consider. The Garmin is easy to work with. Lowrance I finder H20 or H20C does take Navionics chips--as well as the other Lowrance Nauticpath chips--and create a map charts. So it can be used for Topo, streets or marine--and has marine database in it from scratch. (but probably not Canada!)
 
Bob,
Thanks for that great info - the explanation of Candadian charts is an eye opener. I suppose the the Canadian west Bluechart and Bluenav cartridges must make sense to somebody... Looks like the navionics 13xg cart works for the lowrance handhelds, which might be the ticket.

Tim
 
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