Do you have a boat, and want some modern charting and navigational software, but not want to shell out hundreds of dollars to purchase a system?  There may be an alternative for you to use.  Freeware software packages are available that will allow you to download electronic charts for nothing out of your pocket.  All you need to make the whole thing work is a laptop that you can use on your boat, and a GPS receiver, plus the downloaded and installed software and charts.  USB GPS receivers can be obtained from Ebay for about $40.  I can’t specifically comment on which ones to buy except to say that the one I purchased worked with no problems.  I use my old laptop (about 6 years old now) so I don’t take my newer one out on the water and risk damage.

The software that I use is called openCPN.  I’m running it on an old windows laptop, but it works on other operating systems also.  Once you download the software and install it, you will need to load charts.  The good news is that high-quality charts of the United States are available on the internet at no cost.  I don’t know about international locations, but I suspect they are available also.  If I find them I’ll add some links later.

There are two categories of charts that I have downloaded to my system.  I do some sailing in the Gulf of Mexico, and also sail up the Tenn-Tom waterway.  To have chart coverage in both of these general locations, I had to download charts from different places.

For the charts of the Gulf of Mexico (and coastal charts all over the country), I went to the NOAA site.  From this site, clock on the Download NOAA ENCs link. This will require you to acknowledge the user agreement, after which you will be able to download charts.  There are several options.  Raster charts are digitized images of the paper NOAA charts.  These work fine.  However, I prefer the electronic S-57 charts available here. You will have to determine what files you need. They are sorted in various ways, probably most helpfully by state. Download the files, and unzip them in the chart directory used by openCPN and you are ready to go.

If you want to navigate the rivers you’ll need different charts. The oceanic and coastal areas are covered by NOAA charts, but the inland waterways are administered by the Army Corps of Engineers, who make electronic charts available here.  Note that to download these charts, you need to click the button, not the links that are listed below.  This will open a page with two more buttons, one giving you the option to graphically select the charts that you want, and the other giving you the ability to textually chose your charts.  I have not gotten the graphical way to work, so I recommend you select the textual button, and then select the charts for the rivers that you are interested in.  It is helpful to note that some of the rivers change their names as they join other rivers, so it may take a little while to get all the charts that you need.

After you download and install the charts, go to openCPN and tinker with the settings so it can find and import the chart data.

Then you are off to have an adventure on the water…