In addition, Planning Mode uses small Windows-style menus suitable for work, at home, or in the slip. Cruising Mode displays big easy-to-read buttons and windows with virtual analog-style instruments suitable for viewing while underway. Even more impressive, the application senses whether you are stationary or transiting, changing to the most appropriate display automatically. At any time you can manually toggle between the two displays by pressing the F12 key.

WORKING WITH CHARTS

Like Coastal Explorer, most information in Chart Navigator Pro is a mouse-click away. For example, most software applications show a data window with bearing and distance to your next waypoint, squeezing one more window of data on an already-too-small laptop screen. Chart Navigator Pro displays your bearing and distance directly along your course line, just as you would record it in pencil on a chart.

Like any sophisticated and mature program, Chart Navigator Pro includes many keyboard shortcuts, summarized in a table at the end of the Getting Started Guide. More importantly, it uses standard Windows shortcuts, a particularly nice design feature of an application only used seasonally or on weekends. The application also has multi-level undo capability.

Although Chart Navigator Pro ships with the complete United States Maptech chart library, it is also compatible with nearly all major chart formats. This means you can use the program with digital charts you already own, such as SoftChart GEO/NOS formatted charts; international charts from other sources, such as NDI DigitalOcean charts; or the free charts provided by NOAA or the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The only exception is that Chart Navigator Pro does not display DNCs, an alternative vector format produced by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. Coastal Explorer does display DNCs.

We had no trouble panning and zooming over a chart. Chart Navigator Pro's "chart quilting" seamlessly moved across chart files, even when using charts of different scales. We particularly liked the split screen option, allowing you to simultaneously display two or three charts or aerial/satellite panels.

Like Coastal Explorer, Chart Navigator Pro's search capability is exceptional because it searches the entire database. Many charting and navigation applications only search your waypoints. For example, we typed "Seward" – a location in Alaska where we don't have any waypoint marks – and the chart for Seward Bay, Alaska popped up on our screen. A window of similarly-named locations also opens so you can correct the search result in a single click if need be.

WAYPOINTS AND ROUTES

The creation of waypoints and routes is very sophisticated in Chart Navigator Pro. It has all the expected features: unlimited waypoints and routes, boundary circles and areas with alarms, chart annotations, range and bearing lines and so on. But Chart Navigator Pro also includes some exceptional features that enhance usability and safety.

For example, to make a route you can simply click along, creating a string of waypoints. This is certainly convenient – and a lot less cumbersome than dragging and dropping of waypoints into a route folder. But even better, as you approach the edge of the chart, the cursor flips to a white arrow. Continue to nudge the edge and the chart automatically scrolls so you can continue creating your route seamlessly.

A welcome safety feature is the Check Route for Obstacles function. When you create a route, Chart Navigator Pro reads the data from the vector database and alerts you if your proposed route encounters obstacles such as a navigation aid or wreck. Even more impressive, this feature works even if you are viewing a raster chart (remember, raster charts are simply images, with no attendant data) – as long as the vector chart for the area is installed (see photo).

MAPTECHThe Check Route for Obstacles feature warns mariners of wrecks, obstructions, restricted and caution areas, ferry routes, and many other hazards to navigation.

After you've created a route, an option called Fork Route lets you use this information to build additional routes. For example, if you have two or three common routes that split or "fork" after you exit your home marina, the Fork Route feature lets you create a route, then build a new route, departing at any waypoint in a new direction. If you have trouble seeing your route on a cluttered chart area, choose Highlight Objects in the toolbar. The chart image will dim to highlight or emphasize the route.

ADDITIONAL FEATURES

Chart Navigator Pro is designed to work with almost any NMEA 0183 device that has a PC interface. For example, you can connect a GPS, autopilot, depth sounder, water temperature sensor, knot/log, wind speed and direction indicators, rudder angle indicator, AIS receiver, or radar.

With the inclusion of fifteen DVDs of data, you have plenty of information at your fingertips. In addition to the chart library, Chart Navigator Pro ships with a library of aerial and satellite navigation photos, 3D bathymetric contour charts, topographic maps, and tide and current prediction tables. The integrated Coast Pilot and Light List information means you can access data by clicking directly on a chart rather than having to open a PDF document. The built-in Gazetteer lets you click on a harbor to display a window with a cruising-guide-synopsis of that location.