wrote in message
oups.com...
Ahoy Dick,

I was having the same problem, decisions decisions, decisions. I
happened upon Rosepoint software. Strange, the Rosepoint Coastal
Explorer is almost identical to the Maptec Offshore Navigator Pro.
The real neat thing is it is about $200.00 cheaper. I went to this
site
http://store.milltechmarine.com/index.html and they have a package
that contains the Costal Navigator and an AIS reciever fot the price
of the Offshore Navigator.

I bought it and am happy with it.

Fair Winds
Cap'n Dave


I can second that - bought the Coastal Explorer software and an AIS receiver
from Milltech Marine here in Seattle and it has been working great for me.
The tricky part was to set up serial in/out connections to/from my Raymarine
GPS and chartplotters to the USB ports on my laptop.

So now, after planning a route on my laptop using the CE, I can transfer
the waypoints to my Raymarine equipment. And the laptop shows all AIS
transponders within a 10-12 mile radius of our boat - and issues audible
and/or visual warnings of any ships on a collision course. Since we have a
lot of commercial traffic on Puget Sound it serves as a good back up to our
visual lookout.

Claus