Sailing Archives

May 18, 2007

Watch Weekend Boating Live in Google Earth

My friend Virgil from DestinSharks has been doing some serious hacking again and has pulled together a really cool-sounding project for this weekend. Virgil is also the guy behind EarthNC which is a company which provides detailed nautical charts for Google Earth from the official NOAA digital chart data for the US, Puerto Rico, and Virgin Islands. Virgil is going to be participating this weekend in the Billy Bowlegs Poker Run in Ft Walton Beach, Florida. He will be navigating his 27 foot Regal power boat using Google Earth software, but he's doing way more than that - live geotagged flickr photos, live GPS tracking, combined with GE's satellite photos, and more. Let me share with you his description:

In a nut shell, we're going to use the new GooPs Pro ( http://goopstechnologies.com/) to capture our realtime position to Google Earth from a USB GPS on my laptop, transmit our track/position KML to our webserver every 2 minutes using cellular EVDO, and to the extent possible - geotag photos while aboard using GPicSync, upload them to my Flickr account, and then use the Flickr API to create KML from the photos to push back to the map. Obviously, I'll be leaving most of the driving up to someone else tomorrow.

The combined network link - http://destinsharks.com/kmz/nl/bowlegs_pokerrun.kmz - includes the realtime track updated every 2 minutes, the flickr layer updated every 5 minutes, the poker run stops (the big playing cards), and the EarthNC Online chart for the local area. We should be leaving our dock around 11am EDT and will be about for 3-5 hours most likely.

So, I encourage you to save the network link in your "Places" folder in GE, and check it out tomorrow to watch his trip.

EarthNC Online - use Google Earth from within your browser to view EarthNC charts
EarthNC releases 677 nautical charts for Google Earth

Posted by FrankTaylor at 09:09 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 26, 2007

EarthNC Releases Browser-based Google Earth Content

EarthNC (short for "Earth & Sea") recently released marine charts for the entire US and Virgin Islands for Google Earth. These charts come on a CD for a much lower price than typical vector chart data, and they take full advantage of the Google Earth platform for viewing the data. Now EarthNC has announced a new web site which allows you to view the Google Earth content through a web browser. EarthNC is using a very neat plug-in from GoogleEarthAirlines which allows you to view and control Google Earth through a web browser. Go to EarthNC's online page and follow the instructions. Once the plug-in is installed when you view the window you hit a button that starts up Google Earth in the background but shows the output on the browser. Then, using buttons on the screen you can turn on and off layers including the EarthNC Marine Charts, and several other interesting layers developed by EarthNC like weather, vessel tracking, and more.

The Google Earth browser functionality works quite well, and EarthNC's different layers are impressive. The Marine Charts are limited in the online version to harbor charts and basic navigational data. You don't see the full spectrum of data available such as depth contours, fish havens, wrecks, soundings, etc. unless you purchase the EarthNC Plus or EarthNC Pro (available soon) versions.

I also encourage you to check out GoogleEarthAirlines which first developed the browser plug-in for Google Earth.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:32 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

March 31, 2007

677 US Marine Charts for Google Earth on 1 CD

In December of last year, DestinSharks.com announced a beta test of full featured nautical charts for Google Earth. They have now announced availability of EarthNC Plus - a single CD with 677 nautical charts covering the entire US regions based on the NOAA dataset. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) releases their nautical charts in electronic form for free. The trick is in processing the data and making it available in a navigation program. EarthNC Plus charts utilize features built in to Google Earth to provide the type of effectiveness you would expect from a full-featured navigation system. For example, the charts pull in more information as you zoom in closer (depth soundings, buoy markers, underwater features, etc.). The depth markings are in full color and EarthNC takes full advantage of the rich placemarking capability of GE.

EarthNC Plus is even better in some ways than most navigation systems because Google Earth is a full featured 3D virtual globe. Especially when you consider the primary navigation software, Google Earth, is free. In some waters you won't have an inexpensive broadband Internet connection. So, you will want to cache the imagery for the places you plan to visit - but, otherwise Google Earth works pretty well without the connection. You can also use tools to hook up your GPS and have Google Earth provide you with chart plotting capability. I plan to use EarthNC when I sail in the Virgin Islands for a week this summer (yes the coverage area includes Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands).

According to DestinSharks: "Charts are derived from NOAA ENC and Army Corps IENC digital vector charts with significant enhancements for use with Google Earth’s powerful 3D mapping engine. EarthNC Plus is being offered at an introductory price of $49.95 which includes a 12 month chart update subscription." If you've been a boater for very long, you can appreciate the value of full nautical charts for the entire US region for this kind of price. For more information, go to EarthNC.com.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 09:15 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

February 09, 2007

Majesty of the Seas

This is a good story for a Friday. Earlier this week GoogleSightseeing.com had a feature about a bizarre sighting in Google Earth of a "miniature" (33 meters long) cruise ship found in the driveway of a home in France. It turns out a retired coal miner, by the name of Francois Zanella, has earned quite a bit of notoriety by building a 1/8th scale model of the "Majesty of the Seas" cruise ship in the form of a French canal boat. That's right, he has since launched the boat for going up and down the canals. Read the full story here. He even contacted the builders of the real cruise ship and was given a tour of the real ship by the Captain himself. He was featured on a French TV show while he was building and launching the vessel. Anyway, you can see the scale model in his driveway here, and you can also see the real Majesty of Seas in the Miami harbour. Nice write-up James and Alex!

Posted by FrankTaylor at 01:11 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 27, 2006

Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race in Google Earth

[NOTE 27-Dec: The network link seems to be having reliability issues today.]

The official site of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race is again supporting Google Earth to track the race. The race began on December 26th and the positions are updated every ten minutes. The route goes from Sydney, Australia to the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania. This yacht race has been going on for about 60 years and has often been in the news. You can download the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race Google Earth network link and follow the race right now.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 07:41 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

More entries for this category:

Route du Rhum - Live Sailing Race in Google Earth - November 01, 2006
Shipwrecks Around the Google Earth - September 02, 2006
Sailing Adventures and Anchorages of the Caribbean - July 01, 2006
Pete Goss in 2006 Shetland Round Britain and Ireland Race - June 18, 2006
Volvo Ocean Race Leg 7 in Google Earth - May 18, 2006
Multicup 60 - Live Sailboat Race in Google Earth - May 10, 2006
The Aviva Challenge - Sailing Record Attempt - May 03, 2006
Mini-news Roundup - April 10, 2006
Sailblogs.com Supports Google Earth - April 08, 2006
Follow Volvo Ocean Race Leg 5 - April 03, 2006
Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race in Google Earth - March 29, 2006
Maldives Island Group in High Res - March 24, 2006
Bermuda Treasure Shipwrecks Map - March 07, 2006
Follow Volvo Ocean Race Leg 4 in Google Earth - February 19, 2006
Follow Volvo Ocean Race Leg 3 in Google Earth - February 12, 2006
Transatlantic Sailing Adventure Using Google Earth - January 18, 2006
Volvo Ocean Race Leg 2 - January 06, 2006
Back on Land - December 19, 2005
Gone Sailing! Passage Plan in Google Earth - December 13, 2005
Transat Jacques Vabre 2005 Race in Google Earth - November 16, 2005
And They're Off! - November 13, 2005
Volvo Ocean Race in Google Earth - November 11, 2005
Another Sailor Documents Trips Using Google Earth - November 09, 2005
Watching Sports with Google Earth - September 27, 2005
Sailing the Seven Seas - September 10, 2005