Category : Navigation

Articles related to maritime navigation

Guide Escales 2018 – Red card ! [Update-2]

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It saddens me to end the year with a critical article, but the subject deserves it. I wrote in December 2016 (*) a sincerely positive appreciation of the evolution of the application Guides Escales 2017 - Bloc Marine digital version by Figaro Nautisme editions - compared to 2016. But for edition 2018, is unfortunately go back, supply regress and severe rate increase.

Unlike the print edition you can keep several years in your boat library, the annual update of the application Guides Escales clears all purchased regions the previous year. It is therefore not a purchase but an annual subscription, nuance!. And that's not all…

[Update 2022] The Escales Guide has been withdrawn from sale.

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BeiDou-3 China rushes its Global GPS

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To date, the constellation of Chinese GPS satellites BeiDou-2 covers only part of East Asia and the Western Pacific. With the commissioning of GALILEO European GPS late 2016, the replacement scheduled of U.S. 2nd generation GPSII by the 3rd generation GPSIII, the launch into orbit of the 3rd generation of Russian GLONASS-M satellites, China intends to catch up with global coverage forced march. Read more …

Guide Escales 2017

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I have mentioned last July the "Stopovers" Guide, digital version of Bloc Marine published by the Figaro Group. It seems that the remarks I made on the excessively fragmented division of these guides were heard : The version 2017 has the number of modules reduced by 17 down to 12 for the Channel-Atlantic coast, and 13 down to 10 for the Mediterranean. It is a welcome initiative !

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stairs – the digital version of Bloc Marine

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At the beginning of this year I wrote the greatest good I thought of the Digital Almanac, the digitized version of Reed’s Nautical Almanac. The Figaro group, Publisher of the website www.figaronautisme.fr, owner of Météo-Consult / The Weather Channel and Logbook – Marine Block, Published since the end 2014 "Stopover Guides", the digitized version of the Marine Block on the iBook Store. Read more …

Roseanor, 2000 nautical miles against the grain around Europe

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Conveying a boat from Corsica to Normandy in May, it's a bit like going around the world upside down from East to West, but more modest. Two thousands nautical miles on the water against winds and tides, four and a half weeks at sea, with thirteen days forced stopover awaiting for good weather conditions, three hundreds and fifty hours of engine to support the sails, 1000 litres of diesel oil, multiple Corsican, Spanish and Portuguese wines bibs, to calm our nerves, A few packs of water to quench thirst, and hundreds of hours of testing the new features in development of… Weather4D Routage & Navigation !

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2016 Year of GALILEO

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Since my first post on GALILEO end 2011 (¹), space Europe has made significant progress. Despite economic uncertainties and numerous budgetary restrictions, Course and schedule have been maintained thanks to a community political flawless. This is to be welcomed because many other areas of European action didn't have the scoop.

The year 2016 has already been dubbed "the year of GALILEO".. This was the clear message of the Munich Satellite Navigation Summit (²) early March. The Munich summit covered all GNSS systems, but the focus this year was squarely on Galileo. Read more …

Weather4D 2.0.11 A bunch of new features and improvements

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Delivered in AppStore this morning after two weeks of revisions and contre-revisions of Apple services, Always more picky, The new version is finally available. On the menu and in bulk : AIS via internet with AISHub, direct access to Geogarage and cache memory chart management, new model of GRIB weather forecast from Meteo-France AROME HD for inshore races, Full-screen mode, advanced distance calculations, the most visible. Under the hood also a lot of optimization for routing and power consumption. Detailed review to follow… Read more …

Navily makes stopovers easier in just a few taps

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In recent years, French startups have flourished in the world of recreational boating. Their common denominator is to use digital technology to implement an idea which intends to provide a unique service to boaters.. How many will survive ? Hard to say, but they all have the merit of dusting off dad's boating by addressing the younger generation of water sports enthusiasts.. Community sharing of information, co-location, « bla-bla-boat », so many responses to new attitudes in the practice of pleasure boating.

Among them, one particularly appealed to me, Deviated.

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Buy nautical charts on Geogarage

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Weather4D Routage & Navigation offers a choice of raster charts from many international hydrographic services . Charts folders are available for application on the French web server Geogarage. Charts are subject to an annual subscription by Publisher directly on Geogarage website after creating an account there. After subscribing to a publisher, the entry in Weather4D 2.0 credentials created in Geogarage activate display of subscribed folder , ready to download. Procedure step-by-step :

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Weather4D 2.0 revisits navigation on iPad [Update]

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Weather4D 2.0 is available sur Apple AppStore (*). After the success of the first two versions, APP4NAV company just revisit chart navigation on iPad and iPhone by integrating the timing dimension. With simulations and weather routing, navigation becomes predictive, allowing a constant anticipation of future weather conditions and sea state. This “navigation into the future”, relied on the quality of meteorological and oceanographic predictions today available, was designed in order to bring a new dimension to the safety of boaters. Read more …