Sunday 20 March 2016

What year are your CM93 electronic charts? Make sure they are the "latest"! (HOWEVER: ALL CM93v2 charts are OUT-OF-DATE!)

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UPDATE/COMMENT: This post concerning "CM93" charts is proving to be very popular. It must be noted that CM93 Version 2 charts are usually far from being "up-to-date"; certainly NOT the best charts"available, so users of these charts must be cautious. Often, they are totally out-of-date, and dangerous. In some cases, C-MAP or Navionics electronic charts (which are fairly inexpensive on Android and IOS platforms) may be more accurate. However, as we have noted in other posts, Navionics or CMAP charts may also not be fully up-to-date.

NOTE that Mexico's SEMAR issues new charts every year (as well as updates). For example, in 2018, SEMAR issued a new, detailed, chart for the islands in Bahia de La Paz. (Unfortunately, this chart is available only as pricey paper chart or Raster, and not in their vector/ENC collections (such as excellent O-charts).

THIS POST offers the best solution for electronic charting in the west coast of Mexico: OpenCPN, O-Charts Pacific Mexico, and Blue Latitude garbour charts, plus a couple SAT2CHART/SASPLANET charts to fill a couple "holes".
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CM93 vector electronic charts, covering the whole world, are shared widely among cruisers; they are also available from some sites on the web. Technically, these charts are "pirated", so user beware....

[Note: By "latest", we mean the most recent CM93 available which works in OPENCPN]

CM93 "version 2" charts are easily used in the open-source, freely available, OPENCPN navigation program (CM93 "version 3" charts do not work in OPENCPN).

When we were planning to sail to Mexico, a cruising friend gave us a copy of the CM93 charts. We were impressed that they covered the globe; we were less impressed when we saw their lack of detail. This was especially the case when we left the highly accurate (and free) raster charts of the USA and entered Mexico. In Mexico, we quickly learned (i) our CM93 charts were nearly useless, (ii) our updated CMAP charts (on our chartplotter) were much better, and (iii) in many (most?) places, even our up-to-date CMAP charts provided insufficient detail.* As we note in our earlier blog posts about charts and guides (as well as comparing official Mexican SEMAR charts with CMAP charts), we did not feel confident navigating close to shore until we reached Cabo San Lucas where we could finally use the excellent Blue Latitude Press cruising guides, with their excellent, detailed chartlets and accurate waypoints.

[*Our experience with Navionics charts in Mexico indicates they suffer similar problems as CMAP charts; indeed, we note areas where CMAP has important detailed updates not found in the Navionics. See our blog posts concerning CMAP, Navionics and SEMAR charts.]

It turns out, we were using a very out-dated version of  the CM93 vector charts, dated mostly before the year 2000. Since returning home, we have found CM93 version 2 charts dating as late as 2012. The differences (improvements) over the years are substantial.

To help other cruisers, the examples below show the improvements in the CM93 charts for the years "2000", "2007" and "2012" (dates are approximate).



Turtle Bay/Bahia Tortugas (Baja California Sur)
Our first real experience with CM93 charts coming in to an unfamiliar bay. 

Our circa-2000 CM93 chart was useless: no details, no depths, and the datum way off (on the other hand, the CMAP turned out to be pretty good).


The circa-2007 CM93 has much more detail and correct datum, although lights were not correct.




The circa-2012 CM93 chart for Turtle Bay is quite accurate (determined using GE2KAP and Google Earth (see this blog post) -- we wished we'd had it back in 2013!




La Paz, Baja California Sur
Both our circa-2000 CM93 charts and our CMAP chart showed few details and were inaccurate for the section from (and including) Bahia Los Frailes, to Ensenada de Los Muertos, the Cerralvo Channel, and finally, the San Lorenzo Channel entering Bahia de La Paz (they still are...). The Blue Latitude Press Sea of Cortez cruising guide was a godsend.


We entered the narrow, dogleg channel entering La Paz harbour just as the sun began to rise (we had left Los Frailes in the morning and done an overnight trip from Los Muertos in order to beat a Northerly, accurately predicted to come fiercely the next day). The circa-2000 CM93 chart showed NO details; fortunately, the CMAP chart showed good detail which turned out to be very accurate (though we did not know/trust this at the time).




Again, we wished we had the 2012 CM93 charts as confirmation of the CMAP (and Blue Latitude Press) information.




Punta Sabalo/Estero de Sabalo/Marina Mazatlan

In late April 2014, it was time to sail across the Sea of Cortez to Marina Mazatlan in the Estero de Sabalo, where we planned to keep Pelagia for the 2014 hurricane season. Again, our circa-2000 CM93 charts were useless. Our CMAP chart was also incomplete, although it had much more and better information than CM93 (the June 2014 CMAP update provided much more information for this area).


  





The circa-2012, CM93 chart shows an outline of the Marinas in the Sabalo Estero, but with few details. Fortunately, the combination of our CMAP charts and the Blue Latitude Press Pacific Mexico guide gave us the information we needed.



Other places in Mexico where CM93 2012 charts are inadequate (or useless) compared to official SEMAR charts: 

The list is too long. 

But, for example:

Puerto Los Cabos (San Jose del Cabo): nonexistent on CM93

Marina Coral (Ensenada): nonexistent on CM93

Marina Costa Baja (La Paz, BCS): nonexistent on CM93

"The Islands", Bahia de la Paz (new (2018) detailed chart): nonexistent on CM93

Topolobampo: details nonexistent on CM93

Bahia de Altata:  details nonexistent on CM93

Marina at La Cruz and Paradise Marina (Banderas Bay): nonexistent on CM93

The list goes on and on.... 



CM93 charts in Canada?

After seeing these large changes (improvements) in the various versions of the CM93 charts, we wondered how the CM93 charts would look in our home waters in British Columbia.#

The circa-2000 CM93 charts are terrible for BC waters, even on the south coast of BC (even though most areas in 2000 were exquisitely charted by the Canadia Hydrographic Service (CHS) as well as preceding (mostly British) cartographers). However, by 2012, the CM93 charts are quite good.

Further north in British Columbia, there remain "pockets" of unsurveyed (or poorly surveyed) coastline -- almost all well away from typical routes. One area is "Lady Trutch Passage" on the Central Coast near Bella Bella. This passage always looked inviting, but was choked with narrow passages and no chart was available. However, in 2011, the CHS produced a new very detailed chart including Lady Trutch Passage. Interestingly, the circa-2012 CM93 chart includes this detailed information; the circa-2007 CM93 chart as a subset of this new charting; and predictably, the circa-2000 CM93 "chart" is hopeless for this area, even for the relatively well-traveled (and well-charted for years) "Perceval Narrows".

Circa-2000 CM93 "chart" for Lady Trutch Passage area: USELESS


CM93 "2007" chart for Lady Trutch Passage area: VERY incomplete


Pretty good, detailed CM93 "2012" chart for Lady Trutch Passage area

 

Obviously, anything "new" since 2012 (marinas, rocks, shallows, buoys... etc) will not be correct on the "latest" CM93 v2 charts (approx 2012).

(# Legally, in Canada, vessels must carry up-to-date CHS charts, so technically, circa-2012 CM93 charts are not sufficient; of course, neither are CMAP or Navionics charts.)



Before we sailed down to Mexico, we wish we had been aware of the substantial changes in the CM93 electronic charts. We should have been... but we were probably too wrapped-up in too many things as we prepared to sail to Mexico, and as were were on our way down the coast.

Hopefully, some cruisers heading offshore will find this blog post helpful!

11 comments:

  1. I've been trying to find where I can download these charts. Any ideas?

    ReplyDelete
  2. As these charts are technically pirated (and certainly not up-to-date), I am not publishing websites providing them.

    If you cannot find them on the web, contact me by email.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi SV Pelagia; I ran into this post because I am new to OpenCPN and I am trying to download some charts for the sea of Cortez in Baja with depths. I heard that cm93 have depth soundings and I am reading here that you might have them. Would you be able to share the cm93 charts?

      Delete
    2. Hi David and Michelle,

      I recently found your blog and love your posts, especially the ones involving charting. I'm currently using Navionics on an iPad for navigation, and am interested in truing out OpenCPN on a PC as a back-up, for planning, and for viewing grib files. Can you please send me a link to the most recent CM93 charts that work on OpenCPN?

      Thanks,
      Howard
      (cacycle@gmail.com)

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    3. Howard, thanks for nice comments.

      Unfortunately, the site where I once obtained the 2011-2012 CM93 charts no longer has them available (they are, after all, "pirated" charts). You might try asking on Cruisers Forum (first, do a search), as this question often comes up.

      FYI, on Pelagia, Navionics is only a "backup" (actually, barely that). We use official charts (from CHS in Canada) on OpenCPN on Android and PC as our main charts.

      And note that CM93 2012 IS not up-to-date.

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  3. Hi Felipe, as I note above, I do not publish links to CM93 chart downloads as these are technically not legal. A good web search should turn up several sources. My memory is that the more-recent 2012 version came from a French website by someone name Pierre.

    Do note that CM93 charts are AT BEST updated to 2011-2012, and that they do NOT reflect new charts and updates Mexico has produced. Especially an issue around Baja. We found C-Map to be better (and their charts on Android platforms not expensive). Google-Earth-based "photo charts" can be very helpful for the outside coast of Baja. For harbours/anchorages on the inside of Baja (Sea of Cortez), the Blue Latitude charts are great (available from Fugawi).

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks. I have a navigation program (Offshore Navigator) from Maptech and I am trying to make some graphics for the sea of cortez. Someone told me about CM93 but can't find them anywhere. If I get lucky enough to find them, I am planning to use GE as a background and overlay CM93 charts on top of it using GE2KAP. I will try some French websites hoping to get lucky. Thanks for replying though.

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    Replies
    1. ESRI ArcGIS satellite images (available using SASPlanet) are usually much better than available from GE.

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  5. I might have to use navionics from sasPlanet for depth because I was not able to find the CM93 charts. However, when overlaying navionic charts on top of GE they are off by quite a bit.

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    Replies
    1. I would not trust Navionics in parts of Mexico UNLESS YOU KNOW they have been updated to new SEMAR (Mexico) charts. As I noted on top: SEMAR is regularly producing detailed new charts/updates. C-MAP/Navionics are not always on top of these.

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  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete