Nautig now self installs like a regular windows program. Download the setup file here. The initial program setup includes the basic charts and more detailed charts for the Chesapeake bay. For other detailed charts you still need to download and unzip one or more of the following files. They should be unzipped into the "chart" directory.
If you can't tell, the above is a flash program. You can drag the map, just like in Google maps. You can click the buttons to zoom in and out. Although, you probably can't see the buttons very well unless you enlarge the map.
The program has nautical charts superimposed on satellite images. Kinda fun, but it's been done before. What I haven't seen, is an offline version which you can use on a boat without internet access. So that's what I've been writing the past few weeks. The files which make up the program are listed above. They include a lot of satellite and chart images, almost 500 megabytes worth, so I broke the program up into separate files.
The first file, NautiG.zip includes the basic files and program to get started. Once you unzip the file, you should see a directory structure which looks like this:
NautiG.exe (anchor icon) is the program. Subsequent chart_X.zip files should be unzipped into the the chart directory. Satellite_X.zip files should be unzipped into the satellite directory.
If you download and try the program, please let me know if it works, and what you think of it. I've installed it on three computers so far: two Windows XP computers and one Vista. So far, the program has run fine on all three. I'll ask family and friends to try the program over Thanksgiving, and then post about it on some sailing message boards. For the time being, the program only runs under Windows, although I have plans for Mac and Linux versions.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving! Picture from last year's Thanksgiving on the boat in NC.
And they added my Yotreps widget to their blog. I'm honored. The widget doesn't exactly fit in the sidebar of their blog. I forgot to mention that the dimensions of the widget can be changed. Just fiddle with the width and height numbers in the code below until you find the appropriate size for your map.
Update: Improved and moved the tracking widget to the sidebar. It now tracks all the boats reporting to Yotreps. Just select the boat's call sign from the list and hit the "get" button. Clicking "Enlarge Map" will take you to that boat's Yotreps page with more information about the boat. Kyle and Maryanne's call sign is AI4QI.
This widget can be embedded in any webpage. I used the code below in Google Blogger. (Change the call sign to whatever boat you want to track.) Let me know if you try to embed the widget in a webpage and have any problems.
Kyle and Maryanne left last week on their sailing adventure to the Caribbean. They have a Gemini catamaran too, although much newer than mine. They're much more adventuresome than I am. They did a little bit of the ICW to start the trip, but now are way out in the ocean. They're not even bothering to stop in Bermuda, which I hear is a nice place in the middle of the Atlantic to visit.
Being that far out, they do not have cell phone service. But they do have an Iridium satellite phone. They've been updating their position on a website called Yotreps, and sending short updates about their progress. They have a link to Yotreps on their blog, but I thought I'd create a little map for them like the one I used to track my progress.
