Free NOAA Charts Available to Download

I just read an article in NW Yachting on where to get paper charts. You have probably heard that NOAA is getting out of the printing business and you will now be required to purchase charts from a private vendor. There's not much new there because that's the way it has been for several years now. In effect, you go to Captains Nautical and ask them to print you up a chart-on-demand which is pretty cool since it has all of the latest corrections on the chart which are updated right up to the point at which you print the chart.

Who said there is no such thing as a free lunch? Actually, this is your tax dollars hard at work (for once!). The Office of Coast Survey has made about 1000 charts available on-line for free to download as PDF files. I was able to download the entire PNW region onto my desktop and share them via the "cloud" with my Ipad and Iphone. I now have complety updated charts that I can access anywhere at any time, independent of the navigation apps that I have already downloaded. Now I admit that it's a bit of a tedious process, but they are "official" charts and they are free. 

Go to www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/pdfcharts/ 

Start with Chart # 18400 and download whatever you want. You only have until the end of December to do this because they are only making this available for a couple of months and that clock started ticking in October.

Jeff Madera