Wednesday, January 11 — Portland OR
Being a geek, I love Navionics and all they can do for you. When I started sailing (about 20 years ago), pretty much I had was a chart and a compass. This was pretty much state of the art — if you discounted LORAN.
The Pearl, however, has a a Raymarine Pathfinder RL70CRC which is a chartplotter + radar display. On this, you can optionally overlay radar on your chart — pretty slick. Something I discovered recently, however, is that you can also integrate AIS real time vessel tracking information into this display as well. Ever slicker, I think! And, for extra points you can have all of this information displayed (wirelessly) and managed off your iPad. While this sounds suspiciously like the “cat’s pajamas,” I find it a bit terrifying.
Being a geek, I am also deeply suspicious on complex electronic sytems and their propensity to fail when most needed. At any rate, stay tuned for more info on how Pearl gets AIS and iPad support.