Cutting through the Keys

Active Captain is a guide to be taken with some grains of salt,,,
maybe some tequila and lime also.

Active Captain is not as good as it used to be. It's value was always in the fact it was crowd sourced with lots of current updates, now not many updates.

But even in its best time, as a power boater you had to use with caution. Sail boaters are more comfortable bumping their keel, or even getting hung up for a few hours than I am with running gear.

Active Capn is basically useless now, there haven't been many, if any updates since Garmin took over. There was only one winner in that sale.

I don’t understand how all of it works but Aqua Map has Active Captain content that has been recently updated. It is relatively inexpensive and I really like it and find it very useful. I don’t use active captain any more. Aqua Map is adding weather overlays I believe and seems to be constantly making improvements. You all should take a look if you have not already.

Guessing that what you are seeing is that there is still a few people updating information in Active Captain, but nothing like before.

I was an early adopter of Active Captain, then Blue Chart which was the first pad/phone integration of Active Captain. I have purposely retained an old ios version on my iPad just so I could still go into Blue Chart. From what I heard an ios upgrade would render it unusable.

Started messing with Aqua Map and Navionics a couple of years ago, but still would go to Blue Chart to check tides, currents, or previous routes I had saved.

I have now decided Aqua Maps is my future. Finally I am giving up Blue Chart (and going to upgrade my iPad).

One of the key features with Aqua Maps is the overlay of Corp of Engineers survey data. Years ago prior to a major trip north or south I would actually download survey data, print it out, and keep in a binder on the helm. My preference is always to run outside, but if forced into the ICW, the surveys were very helpful.

Now two things have occurred. I get the surveys via an overlay on the chart in Aqua Maps and CoE is much more aggressive in doing surveys (better data). If a person is ever on the ICW the survey data has impact.

Does anyone remember bob123? He posts route files on the internet for problem areas on the ICW. Tremendously helpful. Aqua Map with overlays are just as impactful.

Still learning you made a great point about the COE overlays. I pay for those as well. I downloaded Bob123’s track for the intracoastal and it was very helpful. I like you would rather run outside but weather doesn’t always allow. I am a Aquamap fan till someone buys them out and ruins it.

Are the Explorer Charts still up? I recall a few still liked those charts very much.
Sadly, I have watched the Active Captain charts in my area fall far behind.
I also can not trust the comments from XYZ persons. Reminds me of FB.