Displaying Aqua Map Route on Google Maps

Exporting & Importing Aqua Map Routes to Google Maps

This is my How to 'Export Aqua Map Routes and Import them to Google Maps'. I don't do it that often that I can just remember how, so here's my cheat sheet.

Why do this?

Simple, because it's cool. And it's nice to be able to share a map of our sailing routes with others. We do have a Garmin Inreach, so we can share our current track and position with others. But when it comes to planning, sharing the route helps everyone play together.

What's needed?

• A device on which to run Aqua Map App. We use Samsung Tablets and Phones.
• An Aqua Map Account, Aqua Map Master Subscription so that you have a GEC Account ( where you can store your routes, tracks etc online).
• An Internet Connection.

Ok, here goes:

Step 1: Create a route - If you have Aqua Map then you know how to do this. Here's a quick primer.

• Open the app
• Click on a the chart where you want to start the route
• Select the Route Editor icon 
• Click on the chart to create a route to that click point
• Click again for each turn you want
• When done, click on Stop Editing
• Click Save
• Now the route is visible on the chart, click on any of the connector points for that route and click the 'i' icon for info on that route. Now you can edit it, give it a name that means something.
• Now you have a route in Aqua Map - Easy

Step 2: Upload the route to your GEC account.

• Click on a connector point of the route
• Click on the 'i' icon for the info on that route
• Click on the Share icon 

• Click on 'Public folder' 
• Select the format ( Google Maps will use either GPX or KMZ
• Now the route is stored in your GEC Account - Public Folder.

Step 3: Import the route to Google Maps

• In a web browser, navigate https://www.aquamap.app 
• Click on Chart Viewer 
• If you are not logged in then you should see something like this screen

• If you are logged in to your GEC account then you should see something like below.
• Note that your GEC account folders are shown on the left side of the chart.

• Click on the folder to which you uploaded your route.
• Click on the route name
• Right Click on the file name and select Download.
• Save the file to a known location.
• Now you have exported your route file to your computer and you're ready to import it to Google Maps.

Step 3: Import your route to Google Maps.

• Make sure you are logged into a google account
• Go to https://www.google.com/maps/d/home
• Click on 'Create a New Map'
• Click on the 'Create' button acknowledging that you'll be using some of your Google drive data.
• Click on 'Untitled Map' and type in a name for this map
• Click Save
• Click on 'import' and locate the file that you downloaded.
• Wow, Done!

I used the Share option on Google Maps to show the result. Here's the link, I'll update the google page and the route over the next few days.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1xPqNdfAjuXdbGOr-whjtXe7VellLhoY&usp=sharing

That sounds like a lot to do, however it only takes a couple of minutes. If you would like a video showing the process, please comment or contact me directly.

Thanks.

Paul

Memorial Day Weekend Cruise - 2025 Pt. 3

Memorial Day Weekend Cruise - 2025 - Planning the trip home.

Making the assumption that we get to Jensen Beach for the Memorial Day Weekend, we're looking at the trip home - From the Jensen Beach Mooring Field back to our Dock in Fort Lauderdale.

The Route from Jensen Beach Mooring field is around 37nm and should take just over 7 hours in good weather.

I really like Aqua maps, the Route explorer provides plenty of info about any route. In this case, it shows 36.3nm, 7:15 total time ( hours ) and we would use 4.8Gallons of diesel if we motored all the way. There's 1 fixed bridge on the route and if we needed to refuel, then it's $4.15 per Gallon.

( YES I KNOW - it's a sailboat, Sailboats do not sail in straight lines ) 

Like the arrival at the St. Lucie Inlet, timing is also important when leaving the Inlet.

We're staying at Jensen Beach on the Mooring Ball Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, departing for Lake Worth on Monday Morning. St. Lucie High Tide on Monday May 26th is 10:40 and the Inlet is about 90 minutes from the Mooring field.  So if we leave the mooring field at 09:00, we'll transit the Inlet around 10:30. ( According to Aqua Maps, it should take 1:39 hours : mins. 

We'll plan to stay about 1nm off of the coast to ensure we're not fighting the Gulfstream's northerly flow. Same as the Route north, we'll duck into Lake Worth on Monday and have a Mooring reserved for that evening. Tuesday morning we'll depart out of the Lake Worth Inlet and turn South, staying pretty close to shore again and we should be at Hillsboro Inlet on Tuesday May 27th around mid afternoot, a good time for the High Tide at 15:10.

So that completes the sailing plans.

Summary of the Return Trip:

• Monday - Jensen Beach 09:00 Depart the Mooring field
• Monday - St. Lucie Inlet 09:30 Exit the inlet
• Monday - Lake Worth - Mid afternoon - Mooring Ball
• Tuesday - Lake Worth - Drop the Mooring Ball
• Tuesday - Hillsboro Inlet - 15:00 - 16:00 Enter the Inlet
• Tuesday - Dock - Arrive an hour later.

Looks to be an exciting trip, we'll get to test our new Riding Sail, maybe I'll get the new Batteries installed by then too. 

I'm working on a post about how to export a route from Aqua Maps to Google Maps, that would be cool.

See you on the water.

Paul 

Memorial Day Weekend Cruise - St. Lucie Inlet

 Safe Boating through the St. Lucie Inlet

Credit to the Florida Oceanic Society.

In our planning for the 2025 Memorial Day Weekend Cruise to Jensen Beach, we had to review the St. Lucie Inlet to ensure a safe arrival and departure.

Peggy found this page which shows a Trifold Brochure published by the Florida Oceanic Society, it's a really good, no, not 'good', it's an essential read for anyone unfamiliar with the Inlet.

Eximius has a draft of 5'7" plus another inch due to the gear loaded in the boat.

We're always mindful of the tides of any inlet that we plan to pass through and the St. Lucie Inlet is known to be a risky adventure. However, our boat came from Manatee Pocket and was routinely sailed out of the St. Lucie Inlet, so we know it's ok, just requires a careful understanding of the conditions and the channel markers.  Having a reliable engine is a plus, having a full suite of electronic navigation and depth information at the helm is also a plus, however, we'll have our anchor ready to launch just in case.

Ok, with the inlet in mind, let's review our plans, but first a thought:- It's often said that the most dangerous thing to have on a sail boat is a 'Schedule' !! Schedules tend to push decisions on whether to go or not, whether to go this way or that, whether to push on or duck. We're very aware of that and so we tend to put in alternatives and decision points but still we're not afraid to recognize that perhaps we should back down and seek an alternative. So the trick is - be aware of the alternatives.

On to the Route Planning.

According to Aqua maps, the route from our Dock to the Marina a Lake Worth for our overnight stop is 37nm, 7.5 hours.

We're not worried about our entrance to Lake Worth as big ships go through that inlet so there's very little risks. However, our exit from Hillsboro Inlet is one to consider. The 'Hillsboro District' dredges the Inlet almost continuously, and, really important, they publish the Chart of Soundings every month. Here's the link to their latest Soundings. 

The chart shows the soundings as well as the date and time they were taken. We lookup the data and determine the actual depth above MLW at that time. Under calm conditions, we can always transit the inlet, we just have to avoid the really shallow areas. But if the Ocean is stirred up near the Inlet, then with waves of 3 or 4 feet, those soundings drop significantly. We have touched bottom several times in the Inlet, the bottom is sand and we can feel if the boat touches it, it just pushes through. But if we dig into the sand more than an inch or two, then we could be in trouble.  So, we plan our transit of the Inlet to ensure we're safe. Ideally we would transit when the tide was rising, much better to know that the depth will increase and lift us off rather then when the tide is dropping and we bare the risk of grounding deeper.  Low Tides at Hillsboro Inlet on May 22nd are at 07:17, so we'll plan to transit to the Ocean around 8am.

As mentioned, the tides are not an issue when we are due to arrive a Lake Worth Inlet. So our next navigation planning is from Lake Worth to St. Lucie Inlet then on to the mooring field at Jensen Beach.

So, high tide Friday May 23rd 2025 is at 6:54am and Low is at 13:50. The tide will be rising after 2pm but the St. Lucie Inlet is subject to shoaling, so we would rather arrive at the St. Lucie Inlet around 5pm.

Setting up a route on AquaMaps from Lake Worth to St. Lucie Inlet is about 40nm and at perhaps 5knots, that's 8 hours of sailing. If we get a bit of a lift from the Guld Stream so, maybe we'll do 6knots, that brings our transit time down to about 7 hours. 

We need to be leaving Lake Worth Inlet 7 to 8 hours from 5pm, ie. We should leave Lake Worth Inlet around 7 to 8 am ( a transit from 8am to 5pm is 9 hours ) It's easy to slow down so that we time our arrival at the St. Lucie Inlet )

If we left at 8am, we should arrive at 5pm but we could leave at 9am and still arrive around 5pm assuming there is some decent ( not too much ) wind.

There, we have our departure time for Lake Worth  - you know we'll be scouring the weather info Thursday night to help make the decision when to head out of the lake Worth inlet or even to go up the ditch from Lake Worth - not my favorite choice.

If we get to St. Lucie Inlet at 5pm, we should be at the mooring by 6pm - time to head out to dinner with the other club members that get there on Friday night.

To wrap up:

Depart the Dock 7am, exit Hillsboro Inlet at 8am

Arrive Lake Worth Thursday evening

Depart Lake Worth Friday Morning around 8-9 am either on the outside or up the ditch.

Arrive St. Lucie Inlet Friday evening around 5pm and to the mooring around 6pm 

Next: plan the return trip.

You get there quicker on a power boat, but you're already there on sailboat !

 

Memorial Day Weekend Cruise - 2025 Pt. 1

Planning for a cruise to Jensen Beach Florida

Our local Sailing Club - HISC - Hillsboro Inlet Sailing Club is planning a cruise from Hillsboro Inlet to Jensen Beach FL over the Memorial Day. For us, this will be a two day trip up to Jensen Beach and a two or three day trip back. Stops in Lake Worth and possibly Jupiter are in the cards.

The plan includes meeting up with a few other club members in Jensen Beach, and a whole bunch of members that will drive up for a Saturday evening casual dinner locally. Should be a great trip.

The planning involves research on the Route, Mooring options, Anchorages, Tides & Currents and, of course, the weather. The cruise is planned for May 23rd but we'll probably leave the dock on Thursday May 22nd and return by May 28th. We're in no rush to head back, although that could change - it's Hurricane Season June 1st through November 30th. So an early return is always in the books.

Ok, where do we start?  

What is the distance we have to cover at about 5 knots?

If we head up the ditch due to a grumpy ocean - or - Plan B. then we're familiar with the route, it's the same one that we did in 2015 when we brought Eximius from Solerno Marina in Manatee Pocket by Port St. Lucie back to our rented dock in Fort Lauderdale, except it's the reverse course.

On both the route North and back South, we have the option to enter/exit the ICW/Ocean via Jupiter Inlet, but ideally we'll sail outside each day enroute rather than up/down the ditch.

The route via the Ocean is:

Day 1. Thursday May 22nd

• On the ICW 
• Our Dock south of Atlantic Blvd
• Atlantic Blvd Bridge
• 14th Street Bridge
• Hillsboro Inlet Bridge
• Turn North East on the Ocean to grab some lift from the Gulf Stream
• Lake Worth Inlet
• Anchor overnight by Peanut Island

Day 2. Friday May 23rd

• Depart via Lake Worth Inlet
• Turn North East on the ocean, just as we did on Day 1.
• If weather dictates, 
• We'll come in from the Ocean at Jupiter Inlet
• At Jupiter Inlet, we'll turn North and head up the ICW to Jensen Beach
• If the weather is good, then we'll continue up to Port St. Lucie Inlet
• Turn North and head for Jensen Beach
• If the weather is from the SW we'll anchor South of the Causeway
• Else we'll drop anchor North of the Causeway.

Day 3 Saturday May 24th

• Fun Day 

Day 4 Sunday May 25th

• Fun Day

Day 5 Monday May 26th - Memorial Day

• Raise Anchor
• If the weather is fine, we'll take the Ocean route to Lake Worth with the option to drop into Jupiter
• Else we'll take the ICW Southwards.

Day 6 Tuesday May 27th 

• Raise Anchor Depart Lake Worth for home. Hopefully via the Ocean.

Ok, that's the Outline of the trip. Next - time to review the tides for all three Inlets, HI for Thursday Morning and Tuesday afternoon, Lake Worth Inlet For Thursday, Monday afternoons and Tuesday Morning, St. Lucie Inlet for Friday Afternoon and Monday Morning as well as Sunday Morning if we decide to head South on Sunday.

We have reserved a mooring buoy at Jensen Beach Mooring field for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, departing Monday morning.

I'll detail those in the next post. Just remember, we draw 5'7" empty, so more like 5'8" 

See you on the water.

Great weekend on Lake Boca

HISC Change Of Command Ceremony on Lake Boca

Our trip to Lake Boca went as planned. We left the Dock at 10:55, Atlantic Bridge at 11:30, 14th Street Bridge at 11:45, Hillsboro Blvd Bridge at 12:30 and Camino Real at 13:00.

Anyone on Lake Boca on Friday would have seen the first club boat to arrive, Summer Wind dropped their anchor and were ready to greet other club members. Eximius arrived around 1:30 and shortly, our Raft Master on Commotion. Judy & Jeff brought Affection to the lake. We were anchored a bit close to a couple of boats and would need to move if we wanted to raft up together, Affection anchored nearby intent of moving to the circle when it was formed Saturday. Lady Gray arrived and tied up alongside Summer Wind

We had snagged a pretty good area on the North east corner of the lake, plenty of room for the raft up, just need more boats so that it's a circle and not a line.  Commotion repositioned their boat, planting a huge stern anchor close to where the center of the circle would be, well, close.  More boats arrived, and raft-master, Ross, started to herd the boats. Several dropped both stern and bow anchors.

We moved Eximius to make room for one of the big cats - Chasing Blue - it took a while and we did a few laps around the North channel passing Alebrije several times, they seemed to have found a sweet spot and seemed to just hang our in the North East Corner of the lake.

Affection moved to set another corner. Eduardo helped his buddy set a stern anchor to point his boat along a radii of the circle ( couldn't resist ), Chasing blue took the NW corner and the boats started to fill in the blanks. Ross kept on herding.

Initially the news was that only about a dozen boats would join the circle, but we had 3 boats from a neighboring sailing and boating club and around mid day more of our club members arrived. Lady Gray, Sharyn Leigh, Aries ( rear Commodore Bruce ), No Compromise, Cookie Monster, Alebrije II, Solitude all joined in. 

We eventually rafted along side of Affection. To help move Affection nearer to the corner position, Ross took possession or our Bow anchor and dingy'd it over towards the South West of our bow on the end of 200' of rode. Then asked me to pull the line to drag Affection and Eximius in that direction. With some help of Ross & Carl, I was able to pull in about 50' of rode, it did move us quite a bit and that achieved the objective. We were now clearly in the SE corner of the raft up and left room for some of the other boats to raft up to the port side of Affection

Around 3-o-clock, Russ had jostled all the boats into a circle (ish) and it was story time. Practically every boat, every skipper, every guest, all had stories to share, my favorite pass time. Of course we all got to show off our latest toys on the boat and no shortage of experience to assist in the various challenges about navigation, anchoring and many others.

Around 3pm, speaking with Hector it seemed that Barry wanted me to officiate the Ceremony. Happy to as I have done for several years. I confirmed with the flag officers that they had their flag ready and then navigated across the sterns of each boat back to Eximius.

Peggy had our Dink, Dine and Drift shareables ready. I put the oars in our dink 'Special T' and paddled out to the center of the circle - ok, that was my destination but the wind and current kept blowing me to the Northern edge.

Ross made a PSA about everyone staying until 11am Sunday so that we could break the raft without incident and hopefully not tangle all of the anchors.

The ceremony had it's usual delays, but we got it done. Our Commodore - Barry Simmons, Vice Commodore - Astrid Hunton and Rear Commodore - Bruce Guttler were installed, flags waving from the Spreaders and the Party began ( ok, 'continued', folks were already in the mood.)

After the ceremony, Hector & Lucy paraded the new Cruising Flag for 2025, it's a chart of our sailing area, should be online as soon as Hector send me the graphic ( hint Hector! )

The Drift was a huge success, it took a while for folks to get the dinks out, but the drift quickly formed with over a dozen boats, platters of food of all sorts was passed around. Like all HISC events, if there if food involved then there's too much! Nobody goes hungry at club events.

Some brought sodas, some Rum, Jamie brought shoe pastries, they found their way back to our dink several times, delicious. We thought that everyone would bring Hors d’Oeuvres, we brought water and chocolates. Both were gone by the time the music started.

The music went on long after the drift, a couple of the boats competing for the most popular songs. We still managed to share more stories.

Oh, while Ross & Carl were assisting with launching my anchor, Carl suggested that I re-route the rode so that it does not pass over the side of the anchor roller, I did, but wondered why? I spoke with Carl on Sunday and he told me of a situation where a skipper had secured the tack of their huge spinnaker to the bail across the anchor roller. The wind piped up and the anchor roller detached from the hull and it flailed into the spinnaker, that's one heck of chunk of steel to have to try and tame.  Lesson learned!

In the evening as I moved around the boats, Terry advised me that one of his guests wanted to join and needed an application ( I'm the Membership Committee Chair ) so I went back to Eximius to get my tablet as membership application is done online. By the time I had gotten back towards Sharyn Leigh, the guest had taken a swim and decided to head home, I'll catch him later. However, Jim Wallace had a crew member that also wanted to join. Keep an eye out for Suzanne.

Sunday some were up bright and early, some not so bright and not so early! The aroma of hot coffee wafted across the circle, some of it obviously stronger than the average joe.

Just about every boat was having the same conversation: How do we depart the circle. As Ross had announced before the Ceremony, 11am!  There was a clump of stern anchors in the middle of the circle. Several dinghies worked at pulling the anchors, some were quite stubborn. But Ross, Chris, Eduardo et.al. succeeded and the boats started to depart. Eximius was concerned about potentially rubbing the starboard side of Affection with our port stern quarter, so Jeff walked a huge fender down as we pulled forwards, moved by the wind and current. We easily cleared Affection and I was able to haul in the three strand nylon rode, secure the anchor chain to the bow cleat and then stow the three strand into the anchor locker.

We stayed at anchor for about an hour while I cleaned the transom and tidied the deck ready for the trip south. We had a light snack and pulled anchor at 12:30pm. Peggy helmed us around the North side of the lake then south towards Camino Real Bridge for the 12:40pm opening. We made the 1pm Hillsboro Blvd bridge opening, then the 1:45pm 14th street bridge and finally the 2pm Atlantic Blvd Bridge. We were back at the dock by 2:30pm - just two hours from raising anchor in Lake Boca.

We heard all of the boats that left after us and some before, as they called the bridges requesting passage, I think we all were surprised at the amount of Boat Traffic at that time of day.

It took us an hour and a half to unload Eximius and have an after lunch break, back home by 4:30pm

What a great weekend! Thanks everyone that shared your time with us. Another Great HISC Event.

Sorry for not taking any pics - sometimes we just have too much fun.

See you on the water.

Paul