Aqua Map Boating

I love Aqua Maps. I can’t say that enough. I have been accused of getting a kick back from Aqua Maps because I tell everyone how good it is. I have personally turned over 20 people on to it. I started out in Lake Michigan over a year ago and wanted to use ActiveCaptain for our up coming trip. We had been using it for years and I have a lot of reviews on it of our old cruising grounds but then all the issues came up with Garmin. Three days before we left to head down Lake Michigan I found Aqua Maps. This is one great chart plotter. We use it for all our route planning and as a second chart plotter in the cockpit. The charts are spot on and have not let us down in over 4 thousand miles of ICW to Bahamas cruising. Works great and at a very reasonable cost. We still let everyone know about it. Would not be without it.

At the recommendation of a fellow cruiser, I purchased an annual subscription for the Bahamas as a trial. I was able to use it for a short period of time and then kept getting a message that the tutorial period was over. My only thought was that I needed an internet connection to validate my subscription. If that is the case, this app is useless because while cruising, internet access is not reality. Also because I was in the Bahamas, sorting out the problem was not possible. Now back in the US, I want to know what went wrong before purchasing US charts.

Looking for a navigation app to help me on my first trip on the Hudson River. I have a runabout without any electronics so thought I’d try finding an app that would be fun to try and hopefully be of some help. I used it for the first time on the water and it worked flawlessly in helping me keep in the main channel. Seemed to be very accurate in marking the hazards and all of the channel markers that I saw along the way. Worked great for me and made my trip much more enjoyable and I believe, safer.

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This app has become my go to after losing Garmin BlueChart. The features are great with the along route info on bridges, fuel stops etc and the USACE sonar survey overlay is an amazing tool! BUT, despite ensuring the button in settings is off for delete charts in case of low available space my charts continue to disappear from two devices, but more obvious on my phone than tablet. Wrote to tech support and was dismissed as the button being my issue. It is certainly not on and I continue to have my charts disappear or require downloading 4-5 times before the tiles stop showing update in the corner. This app is on track to be great, but is currently unreliable.

Use the app for Explorer charts. While the price for these charts is good, the detail leaves a lot to be desired since the charts are Raster scans instead of Vector. This means you are restricted to meter depths and no additional detail when zooming in. The Explorer data is good for suggested routes and locations of services cruisers are interested in such as anchorage data, grocery stores, dinghy docks, etc. The app interface is also not intuitive leading me to go through the tutorial often to find how to perform simple navigation tasks. Buy the app for the chart data, not the interface.