Navionics, Aquamaps Explorer, and Raymarine Axiom

[Natashasalvo]

We've been using Navionics on a Samsung Galaxy Tab A for a couple years now cruising in Maine and like it a lot and more importantly, have grown very accustomed to it. We also recently upgraded to a Raymarine Axiom chartplotter, which allows synchronization of routes and markers from the tablet to the Axiom so they show duplicate info, which I like. We create the route on the tablet at night, then synchronize it with the chart plotter and import the route before we take off. (This process could be made simpler but that's another topic.)

So when we decided to go to the Bahamas with some ICW legs, we heard "Get Aquamaps to show the latest Army Corp of Engineer data for the ICW and Explorer charts for the Bahamas." OK, we did and used it to some effect navigating shallow spots in the canals. But watching the phone, tablet, and chart plotter was a bit much, as I wasn't yet convinced to switch over.

Now in the Bahamas, we're finding Navionics depths to be less accurate in anchorages, plus the big advantage of the Explorer charts is having all the waypoints built in to dodge shallow spots and coral heads. And now that I finally figured it out, I've taken to creating routes on Aquamaps Explorer charts, importing them into Navionics, and then synchronizing them with the Axiom. I know it sounds like a lot of work and it kind of is, but I feel good about it so far. So this is what I want to share since I found nowhere that provided these instructions in detail for an Android device.

1. Create a route in Aquamaps on your tablet.

2. Tap the search icon to show your routes and tap the "i" info icon to the right of the route name to show route info.

3. Tap the Share icon in the lower-left corner, tap Share, and tap GPX.

You will see a bunch of apps available for sharing, one of them being Aquamaps, which is not helpful as it's already in Aquamaps. Sadly, you will NOT see the Navionics app, which is what you want. Nor will you see an icon or any way to simply save the route to the local device without the use of wifi or internet.

Among the available apps is Google Drive, which requires a wifi or cell connection to upload the route to your Google drive (assuming you know how to do that), and then download the route to your Downloads folder on your device. This is the technique I use and describe below.

If you've created the route on your phone, say, and then want to share it with your tablet, you also have the option of using the Quick Share app, which is not something I was familiar with. To use this option, swipe down on your phone to show your Notifications and wifi icon, etc, swipe down again to show all the icons, swipe right to show the second page of icons, and then tap the Quick Share icon. Do the same on your tablet. Now you can quick share the route file between your Android devices without using wifi or cell.

You can also email the route to yourself and download the file to the tablet that way, but this also requires internet.

Note that on an Apple phone anyway (don't know about a tablet), Navionics does appear as one of the available apps, so tap that to automatically import the routeinto Navionics.

4. Enable wifi on your tablet.

5, Tap the Drive icon and tap Save to upload the GPX file to a folder on Google drive.

To help you find your routes, create a folder called Routes and always save your routes to this folder.

6. Add the Google Drive icon to your home page on the tablet so it's readily available, and then click Drive, navigate to your folder, tap the three vertical dots to the rightof your GPX file, and then tap Download., which is in the third grouping of menu choices.

7. Create an icon on your home page for My Files, which you'll find in the Samsung folder, tap the My Files icon, and tap Downloads.

Your downloaded GPX file will be there right at the top.

8. Tap the GPX file and you'll see Navionics as one of the available apps.

9. Tap Navionics to automatically import the route into Navionics.

You now have your Explorer route imported into Navionics, which you can now synchronize with your Axiom chartplotter as well.

While it sounds like a lot of steps, and it is unnecessarily so given that Navionics isn't available as an option when you share routes from Aquamaps, it's not that bad once you get everything set up to easily access your downloaded routes.

I hope these steps help others, and by all means, if you have a simpler solution (other than buy an Apple device), I'd love to hear about it.

Tasha
Sv NIRVANA
South Portland, Maine

[PJHoffnet]

Great tutorial ...

I use OpenCPN for voyage planning/route development - for me, it's just easier to do on the PC.

Like you, I keep all my .gpx routes, tracks, anchorages/marinas/LNM alerts (saved as waypoints) saved in Google drive. As I build routes, I import them into Aqua Map and Navionics to 'check' them against the USACoE surveys, and sonar charts in Navionics for any tricky spots. Routes are loaded into AM or Navionics as needed to support planning travel. The .gpx 'library' also go onto the SD card for the MFD.

[team karst]

I didn't renew Aquamaps this month. Where we are right now, at anchorage, its nearest depth sounding is 0.5nm away! IMO, they are only good for the beaten path.

[John_Trusty]

Many thanks, Natashasalvo for the tutorial. It makes you wonder with so many bright people working for Apple, Garmin, Android, Raymarine, etc. that they could not make it work together so that simple sailors could plug and play. I think they just want to keep you in their product family and think that making it difficult to share will prevent you from leaving the yard.