In 2005, NOAA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began distributing raster and vector charts for free. There are also tens of thousands of pages of nautical reference material available free on the Web. However, collecting and maintaining a complete nautical e-library is extremely time consuming. As a service to our Managing the Waterway cruising guide readers, we download and catalog updated NOAA and USACE charts and nautical publications yearly.

Whether you already own navigation software and only need updated charts and reference materials, or you are a newbie who wants free or trial software and charts to test the e-charting waters, this 2-DVD set makes you good to go!

U.S. Raster and Vector Charts—Charts are cataloged and organized into popular cruising geographies. Chart files are standard BSB (raster) and S-57 (vector) charts provided by NOAA and the U.S. Army Corps and display in all computer-based navigation packages that support these formats.

Nautical Reference Library—This third annual update now includes just under $3000 and over one gigabyte of government publications, reference texts, and nautical calculators in searchable Adobe Acrobat PDF or HTML web browser format.

Free and Trial Software—Contains free and trial software applications for both PC and Macintosh operating systems.