Sandy Estabrook’s
Quick Plotter
From Sandy Estabrook's Guide to the Abacos, Bahamas
For Use with a Mac or PC.
Half the fun of any trip to the Abacos is in the planning, especially from Florida's west coast. On my first trip I used Loran & Sat-Nav, GPS's predecessor. Eventually when completely switched over to GPS, chartless at first, it was interfaced with my auto pilot. At one point I found the need for a plotter at home so I decided to make a spread sheet to plot my trip on my Mac. It was intended for reference only and I enjoyed seeing how a change in one waypoint would change the route.
So I came up with this little graphically enhanced spreadsheet - Quick plotter. which will calculate the distance and heading from one waypoint to another. Just enter the waypoints of your departure and destination along with your typical cruising speed. Simple as that.
I also used a full spreadssheet version for plotting the whole trip.
(For those familiar with Excel working with cosign & tangent you can repeat my formulas to create a complete route spreadsheet.) I left part exposed for this purpose which you will see on the "Quick Plotter" once downloaded.
Note: The formulas are based on planar not spherical geometry, so errors will be encountered over 100 miles segments. However any inaccuracy will be of little consequence for distances one typically travels in a day.
Just to play it safe, the usual disclaimer: This excel spreadsheet should not be used for navigation.
The boat is my Motu Iti II - Catalina Islander 34, anchored in Hope Town Harbour, Abaco