Nautical Charts - NOAA Website links

[allingeneral]

I have recently become interested in the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay. This interest was piqued mostly by my viewing of charts from the area. One would be silly to go out on the Potomac or Chesapeake Bay without some knowledge of the area and some good navigational aids. I would like to get a GPS system, but I have decided that I don;t have the money for that right now, so that makes these free charting resources that much more appealing to me.

So, here are some links to free Nautical Charts

Here are a couple of good chart resources online - direct from the folks at NOAA.

http://ocsdata.ncd.noaa.gov/OnLineViewer/

Here are some "Booklet Charts" that you can download and printed at home (East Coast only, currently). This is a beta program at NOAA. Let them know how much you like the layout so they will expand the coverage and availability of all charts!

http://ocsdata.ncd.noaa.gov/BookletChart/

And for links to many of NOAA's chart resources, go here:

http://www.nauticalcharts.gov/

Happy Sailing!!