All summer I have been searching for a way to download a NOAA navigation chart to my laptop. We have the boat moored in Port Jefferson, and there are a number of interesting places to poke around and explore. Most Nautical Charts are either in a large format book format, or printed paper charts which are great when I am actually on the boat. The alterative has been to using some type of online navigational chart. Both GeoMarine and Active Captian are great examples, but I really wanted to see a full screen version that I can view when I am planning a voyage. This great resource page was created by Bob Webster. He has stored these charts in a PNG image format and they are HUGE files, allowing you to save them to your laptop with excellent detail (most webpages are low resolution making zooming impossible). We have added the NOAA Chart No 1 links and a few other search tools.
We hope you find Bob's efforts to be as helpful as we do.
We hope you find Bob's efforts to be as helpful as we do.
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Nautical Chart Symbols, Abbreviations and Terms
Chart No. 1: Nautical Chart Symbols, Abbreviations and Terms is a reference publication depicting basic chart elements and explains nautical chart symbols and abbreviations associated with NOAA and NGA charts. It is a valuable aid for new chart users and a useful tool for all mariners. Chart No. 1 is no longer available in print, but users are welcome to download and print a copy from the NOAA link above. Hard copy versions of Chart No. 1 may be purchased from commercial vendors. The Tenth Edition dated November 1997 is the current edition number.
Chart No. 1 is organized according to subject matter, with each specific subject given a letter designator. The general subject areas are General, Topography, Hydrography, Aids and Services, and Indexes. Under each heading, letter designators further define subject areas, and individual numbers refer to specific symbols. Information in Chart No. 1 is arranged in columns. The first column contains the IHO number code for the symbol in question. The next two columns show the symbol itself, in NOS and NGA formats. If the formats are the same, the two columns are combined into one. The next column is a text description of the symbol, term, or abbreviation. The next column contains the IHO standard symbol. The last column shows certain symbols used on foreign reproduction charts produced by NGA.
Chart No. 1: Nautical Chart Symbols, Abbreviations and Terms is a reference publication depicting basic chart elements and explains nautical chart symbols and abbreviations associated with NOAA and NGA charts. It is a valuable aid for new chart users and a useful tool for all mariners. Chart No. 1 is no longer available in print, but users are welcome to download and print a copy from the NOAA link above. Hard copy versions of Chart No. 1 may be purchased from commercial vendors. The Tenth Edition dated November 1997 is the current edition number.
Chart No. 1 is organized according to subject matter, with each specific subject given a letter designator. The general subject areas are General, Topography, Hydrography, Aids and Services, and Indexes. Under each heading, letter designators further define subject areas, and individual numbers refer to specific symbols. Information in Chart No. 1 is arranged in columns. The first column contains the IHO number code for the symbol in question. The next two columns show the symbol itself, in NOS and NGA formats. If the formats are the same, the two columns are combined into one. The next column is a text description of the symbol, term, or abbreviation. The next column contains the IHO standard symbol. The last column shows certain symbols used on foreign reproduction charts produced by NGA.
Table of Contents
This publication is offered for viewing and downloading in PDF Adobe format. Viewing is organized in sections and downloading is organized in individual chapters. It is also offered for downloading as a total document
The Zip files of the sections are large ranging up to 27.6 MB. Be advised that you might experience long time frames depending on the speed for your connection to the Internet. For example, a 56K modem connection to the Internet can transfer about 4000 bytes per second when conditions are ideal. The download time for a 1.0 MB file at this rate is just over 4 minutes.Viewing the following chapters requires the use of the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Downloading requires a utility such as Winzip.exe to open the zipped versions of the chapters.The images in the version of Chart No. 1 offered below were produced in a 300 dpi *.TIF format using packbit compression and 256 colors then distilled using Adobe Acrobat 5.0.
This publication is offered for viewing and downloading in PDF Adobe format. Viewing is organized in sections and downloading is organized in individual chapters. It is also offered for downloading as a total document
The Zip files of the sections are large ranging up to 27.6 MB. Be advised that you might experience long time frames depending on the speed for your connection to the Internet. For example, a 56K modem connection to the Internet can transfer about 4000 bytes per second when conditions are ideal. The download time for a 1.0 MB file at this rate is just over 4 minutes.Viewing the following chapters requires the use of the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Downloading requires a utility such as Winzip.exe to open the zipped versions of the chapters.The images in the version of Chart No. 1 offered below were produced in a 300 dpi *.TIF format using packbit compression and 256 colors then distilled using Adobe Acrobat 5.0.
CHART NO 1
Resources (with many thanks)
http://xpda.com/nauticalcharts/
http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/mcd/chartno1.htm#toc
http://xpda.com/nauticalcharts/
http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/mcd/chartno1.htm#toc
The easiest way to find your chart may be to Press and Hold the "Crtl" key while Pressing the "F" key.
This will open a search window in your browser.
Then just type in part of the area your searching for.
Examples
Chesa for Chesapeake Bay
Narra for Narragansett
This will open a search window in your browser.
Then just type in part of the area your searching for.
Examples
Chesa for Chesapeake Bay
Narra for Narragansett
From Bob's Website
I got irritated the other day because I couldn't find any common, printable formats of the NOAA Nautical Charts. So I made some.These are .png files of the 2/2/2008 NOAA Nautical Charts (updated with the April 2009 and March 2010 issues). I think this is all of them. Most are at full resolution. (6 or 8 of them flaked out during the conversion and I had to cut the resolution down a little, and a couple wouldn't read at all.)Let me know if you find any mistakes or have any questions:
Bob@upperspace.com
You can download the original charts from NOAA here
NOAA Charts
NOAA said they would eventually have .tif files available, which will make this page unnecessary. In the meantime, you can download any of these and print your own charts. The text is readable (barely) on a 13x19 page. If you print any smaller than that, you may want to use multi-page printing.Some of the charts have more than one file. For example, to get the complete chart 11306, you'll need both files that begin with 11306.The insets on a few of the charts are in separate files. If you want them on the same page for printing, you can merge them together using Photo Mud (Tools, Combine Images, uncheck Scale-to-Fit, and select Multiply for the Combination Method.) You can also print multipage charts using Photo Mud.
You can get Photo Mud here: Photomud
You can find chart coverage and numbers on the NOAA catalogs
I got irritated the other day because I couldn't find any common, printable formats of the NOAA Nautical Charts. So I made some.These are .png files of the 2/2/2008 NOAA Nautical Charts (updated with the April 2009 and March 2010 issues). I think this is all of them. Most are at full resolution. (6 or 8 of them flaked out during the conversion and I had to cut the resolution down a little, and a couple wouldn't read at all.)Let me know if you find any mistakes or have any questions:
Bob@upperspace.com
You can download the original charts from NOAA here
NOAA Charts
NOAA said they would eventually have .tif files available, which will make this page unnecessary. In the meantime, you can download any of these and print your own charts. The text is readable (barely) on a 13x19 page. If you print any smaller than that, you may want to use multi-page printing.Some of the charts have more than one file. For example, to get the complete chart 11306, you'll need both files that begin with 11306.The insets on a few of the charts are in separate files. If you want them on the same page for printing, you can merge them together using Photo Mud (Tools, Combine Images, uncheck Scale-to-Fit, and select Multiply for the Combination Method.) You can also print multipage charts using Photo Mud.
You can get Photo Mud here: Photomud
You can find chart coverage and numbers on the NOAA catalogs