navigation apps for an ipad and River Dart as a holiday destination

[ANTREVELL]

Bavaria Cruiser 33    2014

Thinking of using my Ipad for  back up navigation . Garmin 4008 on the boat .   Would appreciate comments as to programme . Would lean towards Navionics if no advice available .

Thinking this year to visit River Dart  as our annual holiday  is it worthwhile . Somebody said you have to pay to lay on your own anchor .

Regard  Tony

[geoff]

Dont know about the nav question , but the Dart is very good. Ok they do charge to anchor but not a lot. alongside mooring is available on the Dartmouth side and there are marinas, but anchoring in the middle off the town gets my vote. Geoff

[Rampage]

For navigation software you'll have to go a long way to beat Navionics on both cost and ease of use grounds. Remember that an iPad has to have a sim for it to have gps capability (wifi only iPads don't have gps). That said I use a wifi iPad for route planning and checking but rely on the fixed plotter for actual navigation. Backup navigator is the same app (and same subscription) running on an iPhone.

[sunshine]

Rampage is correct that only sim card ipads have a built-in gps chip. However, all is not lost if you have a non-sim iPad. I have a quark-a027 which acts as an external gps to a non-sim iPad. It also sends all the boat nmea/seatalk plus AIS data to the iPad or any apple or android phone via WiFi.  A further alternative is a Bluetooth gps such as a Garmin glo. I have heard, but cant confirm, that the interns gps in a simmed iPad is quite power hungry, so battery life increases with an external gps, either Bluetooth  or WiFi.

[Luna Azzurra]

I use Wärtsilä iSailor which is old Transas iSailor.
As most cargo ships use Transas it is professional navigation software.
But please check if they have your area of sailing first.