What Should NOT Use?

[AJ_n_Audrey]

I have been slogging through electronic chart options, and am not sure what to do. For chartplotters, I have an old Furuno NavNet MFD8, and a new Garmin GPSMAP 942 (which I got because it was on sale cheap). I plan to sail next year to the Bahamas, down through Turks-Caicos to DR to PR to VI to Eastern Caribbean. I have previously used Garmin BlueCharts Mobile on iPad in the Bahamas with CMAP on the Furuno, but I mostly used the iPad.

Is there any reason NOT to get Garmin charts for DR & Eastern Caribbean? Has anyone had a terrible experience with those charts?

I will have back-up Navionics on iPad since Bluechart Mobile is dead.

[travellerw]

Originally Posted by AJ_n_Audrey

I have been slogging through electronic chart options, and am not sure what to do. For chartplotters, I have an old Furuno NavNet MFD8, and a new Garmin GPSMAP 942 (which I got because it was on sale cheap). I plan to sail next year to the Bahamas, down through Turks-Caicos to DR to PR to VI to Eastern Caribbean. I have previously used Garmin BlueCharts Mobile on iPad in the Bahamas with CMAP on the Furuno, but I mostly used the iPad.

Is there any reason NOT to get Garmin charts for DR & Eastern Caribbean? Has anyone had a terrible experience with those charts?

I will have back-up Navionics on iPad since Bluechart Mobile is dead.

Hhmm.. I'm pretty sure Garmin Bluecharts include both the Explorer Charts and the Wavy Line charts. I'm not %100 sure, but pretty sure. If so, then they are great up in Bahamas and Turks.

I also know quite a few people using Garmin gear down here in the Eastern Caribbean. They have never complained about their charts, so I assume they are good.

As to Navionics.. There have been some reported issues in the Bahamas and a few locations in the Eastern Caribbean (Antigua especially). However many people still use it as their main chart source and have no issues.

[AJ_n_Audrey]

Thanks Travellerw, I do know about the concerns about Navionics for the Bahamas - I'll have the Explorer Charts via Garmin unless they do something unexpected. I saw that Monty Lewis backed away recently on Bahamas Chatter from fully endorsing Garmin Bluecharts with Explorer data, and I think I saw elsewhere that some of the Bluecharts Explorer data had been modified by Garmin. That said, I think the magenta course lines should still be reliable, but I'll be checking. I have Bluecharts (not Bluecharts Mobile) on the new chartplotter.

[wayne.b]

Originally Posted by AJ_n_Audrey

I have been slogging through electronic chart options, and am not sure what to do. For chartplotters, I have an old Furuno NavNet MFD8, and a new Garmin GPSMAP 942 (which I got because it was on sale cheap). I plan to sail next year to the Bahamas, down through Turks-Caicos to DR to PR to VI to Eastern Caribbean. I have previously used Garmin BlueCharts Mobile on iPad in the Bahamas with CMAP on the Furuno, but I mostly used the iPad.

Is there any reason NOT to get Garmin charts for DR & Eastern Caribbean? Has anyone had a terrible experience with those charts?

I will have back-up Navionics on iPad since Bluechart Mobile is dead.

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I have been to the Caribbean twice using C-Map charts on my Furuno and have had no issues with them. The entire Carib is covered with a single chip so expense shouldn't be an issue. As a backup I'd suggest something like the Caribbean NV charts on a laptop running OpenCPN.