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Problems and Solutions Traditional navigation resources suffer from a number of problems that digital navigation can solve or reduce. The first issues we’ll discuss are seams, size and storage. It seems to be the first law of kayak navigation that if you want to go from point A to point B, you’ll have to cross at least one seam between charts or maps. Maps are particularly bad, since they’re drawn within the borders of a fixed gridwork. Charts aren’t as bad as maps on this point, since they often cover a larger area and are drawn in overlapping regional areas at different scales rather than in a rigid grid. However, charts can measure three feet by four feet, which can be difficult to use on a kayak deck and cumbersome to store at home. In the past, I have cut and pasted together portions of USGS maps and laminated them into a single map. The resulting composite map avoids the seam problem, but it can be as large and difficult to use and store as a chart. Laminating the composite map required special equipment at a copy service. A chart can be cut down to a manageable size, but next time you paddle nearby, you’ll need to buy a new chart or live with the seams you created. Also, if maps and charts are cut up, the navigational information printed on the margins of the map, such as latitude and longitude and magnetic declination, are often lost. With digital navigation, I can shrink or expand a selected portion of a chart or map to fit a printed page. If I want a small-scale map to give an overview of an area, I can shrink an entire map or chart onto a standard sheet of paper. On the other hand, if I want a large-scale map of just the area where I intend to paddle, I can expand that area to fill the entire sheet. Next time I paddle nearby, I can print a new map for that area. So, the maps are a handy size, have no seams and are stored on the computer rather than under my couch. The physical size of the map is limited only by the printer. Generally, I print maps on standard 8.5-by-11-inch paper. They fit in my map case without folding. You can print on standard-size paper with any color or black-and-white ink-jet or laser printer. If you don’t have a suitable printer available, you can save the image on disc as a PDF document or graphic and print the map at a local copying service. I print my maps on waterproof paper. Several companies offer waterproof paper that can be used in a standard ink-jet or laser printer (included with Internet resources). Once the ink dries, the map is waterproof and smudgeproof. You also can write with an ordinary pen on the paper, and the ink becomes permanently waterproof. What a great development for kayak maps! I’ve also used this paper for tide charts, route notes and other information I want to survive on deck exposed to rain and spray. Most brands of waterproof paper costs less than 50 cents per sheet. Finally, the computer can “stitch” images. One reason I like AllTopo is that it comes with a built-in stitcher. OziExplorer recently added a stitcher. After specifying the boundaries of the area I want included in the resulting map, the program can copy and paste parts from all the necessary maps to create the combined map and provide a final map that includes just the defined area of interest. The resulting map is georeferenced, so I can continue to use it in my viewing software without a hiccup. (See Illustration 2.)
Printing my own charts and maps for the areas I’m interested in solves other problems with traditional navigation resources: Commercially published maps often are too small-scale to be very useful for kayaking. I can print them in a larger scale. The plastic maps published by National Geographic’s Trails Illustrated division are very popular with kayakers in my area, but they fade in sun and rain—after a short time, topographic lines and other information become invisible. By going digital, I can print out a new map each time I need one. |
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