Is there a listing of GPS waypoints of the Intracoastal Waterway?

[jayhanig]

I finally got a way to power up my Humminbird Chartplotter/GPS in the comfort of my air conditioned office and I thought I'd like to preload the GPS coordinates of the buoys that define the ICW near where I live so I could generate routes to my most likely locations. Looking at a 40,000:1 chart, I'm struck by how imprecise I'm likely to be if I try to plot them from that chart. I live on Topsail Island, NC and our chart segment is tall and narrow.

Is there a downloadable listing of GPS waypoints of the ICW between say New River Inlet and Masonboro Inlet? I probably will never go any further than that... at least with this boat.

 

[blifsey]

Re: Is there a listing of GPS waypoints of the Intracoastal Waterway?

This might help some, go to EarthNC Online Viewer and you can get lat/long for nav aids one at a time.

 

[jayhanig]

Re: Is there a listing of GPS waypoints of the Intracoastal Waterway?

Outstanding! That is exactly what I hoped to find. Thanks for the link.

 

[dingbat]

Re: Is there a listing of GPS waypoints of the Intracoastal Waterway?

What charts are you using that don't have nav aids? On my unit, you put the pointer on the bouy and save it as a way point.

 

[jayhanig]

Re: Is there a listing of GPS waypoints of the Intracoastal Waterway?

I'm sitting here at my desk marking these; not out in the boat. The thought occurs to me that I'm doing this stupidly. I haven't figured out how to scroll around using the chartplotter to pick out and mark the navaids. I'm using a Humminbird 788ci with internal GPS and Navionics Gold software.

 

[sasto]

Re: Is there a listing of GPS waypoints of the Intracoastal Waterway?

My understanding Jay is this unit is a GPS, not DGPS. Plotting out a course beforehand is something I do regularly before navigating unknown waters, but the ICW is difficult. Bouy locations change and their close proximity to each other make it almost impossible for me with GPS.

What about making a track on your first trip?

 

[veritas honus]

Re: Is there a listing of GPS waypoints of the Intracoastal Waterway?

I'm sitting here at my desk marking these; not out in the boat. The thought occurs to me that I'm doing this stupidly. I haven't figured out how to scroll around using the chartplotter to pick out and mark the navaids. I'm using a Humminbird 788ci with internal GPS and Navionics Gold software.

You're not doing anything stupidly, Jay. You're excercising the 7 P's... (Proper Prior Planning Prevents P*ss Poor Performance). Until you become proficient in the use of your GPS Chartplotter, use your paper charts along with it. Once you've become proficient with the chart plotter; keep the paper charts on board as a failsafe. Everywhere I go with the boat, I get a waterproof chart for that area. I put them in a looseleaf binder. I don't have a Gps Chartplotter yet, but when I do, my charts will always be with me as a failsafe.

Sasto brought up a good point about the bouys locations changing.

 

[blifsey]

Re: Is there a listing of GPS waypoints of the Intracoastal Waterway?

I have a Lowrance HDS5 combo that came with the detailed Lake Insight charts and not detailed coastal information. We took boat to Hilton Head Island for a week and I was looking at doing similar to what you are doing. However, one day at Bass Pro Shop I found an older Navionics Silver card for my GPS. It has all of the nav aids and more and it is just the Silver version. I would think the Gold version already has all you would need. Also, if your unit can import waypoints and routes from a card or through cable connection to your PC, download MapTech Chart Navigator and the RNC charts for your area. You can then mark all the waypoints, routes, etc. on your PC and load onto GPS. Also, I sat and just studied the charts many evening before our vacation and that really helped me feel familiar with the area when we go there. I also use GPSBabble and G7toWin to reformat files. I was able to make a route in Chart Navigator, convert to format for my GPS and also to a KML file that can be opened in Google Earth

 

[Fireman431]

Re: Is there a listing of GPS waypoints of the Intracoastal Waterway?

Also note that there are going to be differences in the chartplotter GPS points and the Google Earth/internet chartplotter points. Some will be based on true North vs magnetic North and other differences will be in the way lat/long points are displayed. Google Earth has a variety of ways to display data...just make sure you are comparing apples to apples. Here's a bit of info on that:

http://www.cnrhome.uidaho.edu/documents/Lab_12_GPS.pdf?pid=120440&doc=1

There are many more articles online about these differences. Plotting beforehand to get around unfamiliar shoals may cause you to be aground. Also, be aware (as Sasto mentioned) that the river changes and bouys are moved, but your chartplotter will have them at their last recorded location. If you follow the chartplotter religiously, you WILL ground. There is no substitution for learning your area (not indicating that you won't, just that your should!).

I have a Garmin 2006 GPS/chartplotter and there have been many times that it will show me that I'm in the grass/land when I am in clear water. It's a great navigation aid, but nothing is foolproof.

 

[dingbat]

Re: Is there a listing of GPS waypoints of the Intracoastal Waterway?

I haven't figured out how to scroll around using the chartplotter to pick out and mark the navaids. I'm using a Humminbird 788ci with internal GPS and Navionics Gold software.

On my Garmin, you use the "mouse" pad to move the pointer. Touch the bouy with the pointer and the data pops up on the screen. Hit the save button and your done. You create routes the same way.

For palnning, I'm running Garmin MapSource software on a PC. Makes life easy