#How to use google earth offline software#
#How to use google earth offline download#

#How to use google earth offline software#

This software takes a satellite picture of your choosing and converts it into a KAP file thatвЂ™s readable on the chartplotter. One great use of the software is that you can overlay satellite pictures onto the plotter on your laptop by using GE2KAP software (what I used), which has in turn been superseded by Sat2Chart.

#How to use google earth offline download#

There are many free charts you can download onto this software, as well as ones to purchase. Many cruisers use Open Source CPN, which is chartplotting software on a laptop. With the MotionX app you can switch between satellite images to find the clearest ThereвЂ™s also a 2GB restriction in the cache memory for use offline.

ThatвЂ™s great when using broadband, but on a poor connection can be slow and time-consuming. Fortunately a history slide bar allows you to go back through previous pictures of the area to find the clearest view. However, some Google Earth images are affected by cloud cover, or the sun was at the wrong angle when the image was taken. We can add a GPS so that our position is seen on the image. With Google Earth, zooming in on an area where there is coral we can quite clearly see just where there are shallows and deeper areas. Using satellite imagery takes the concept of eyeball navigation a stage further. It takes a lot of practice to estimate actual depth but it is relatively easy to separate shallow from deep water. On a cloudy day it is most difficult to determine depths.

Polarising sunglasses are useful, but the sun must be behind you otherwise glinting from the sun makes the depth unfathomable. Hoisting someone aloft to look down from the spreaders can aid navigation. When sailing among coral the first tactic is to use eyeball navigation: with clear water and the sun behind it is quite clear where shallows are and what needs to be avoided. We have got used to chartplotters and GPS being very accurate sometimes (I think) too accurate as we pass ever closer to obstructions, confident weвЂ™ll be safe because it shows them on a computer screen.Д«ut when cruising further afield we need to understand that the charts may not be as accurate as weвЂ™d like them to be, and we need to sail more conservatively than we might, for example, in north-west Europe.