Garmin International Inc. announced yesterday the upcoming release of its new BlueChart Mobile 2.0 app for iPhone and iPad. This upgraded app will provide some new features for sailors and marine enthusiasts including streaming real-time weather alerts and access to Garmin’s ActiveCaptain community.
BlueChart Mobile 2.0 utilizes the same BlueChart g2 data available for Garmin chartplotters and allows users to plan and create routes, view shaded depth contours and inter-tidal zones, mark waypoints and more. The unique intuitive interface allows users to establish a destination and search for marine service points and find information on hours of operation, phone number and services available.
One of the more important upgrades that version 2.0 received is the ability to stream weather both during planning and while on the water. Users can choose to either view the weather on their iPad or iPhone or stream the information to their Garmin chartplotter. There are both free and paid weather services available. Free weather services include: dew points, wind direction and speed, radar and cloud cover, buoy reports, marine zone forecasts (for US/Canada/UK), land zone forecasts (US/Canada), surface wind forecast grids, sea surface temperatures, surface pressure forecast and sea state forecast. In-app paid upgrades include infrared clouds imagery, radar imagery, lighting and StormWatch watches, and weather warnings and advisories.
“BlueChart Mobile 2.0 makes planning your day on the water easier than ever,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin’s vice president of worldwide sales.
The BlueChart Mobile 2.0 app will be free to download and is expected to be launched this summer. Charts and region maps will cost an additional fee, but prices have not been announced yet.
Looking forward to it!
I sail a Hobie Tandem Island and usually get very wet. I’m not going to try to fiddle with the wife’s iPhone while underway. The phone is already onboard double dry bagged so having the data streamed to my chartplotter will be great.