Major SSECN Announcement - ARGUS Data Now Avaialble on SSECN

In This Issue

I. Salty Southeast Cruisers Net, SURVICE Engineering and EarthNC Form Tri-Partnership to Bring Revolutionary Sounding Data to the Cruising Community!

II. How Does It Work

III. A Few Words of Caution

IV. NONE of This Would Have Been Possible Without the Support of Our Sponsors

Salty Southeast Cruisers Net, SURVICE Engineering and EarthNC Form Tri-Partnership to Bring Revolutionary Sounding Data to the Cruising Community!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 9, 2012

The Salty Southeast Cruisers' Net (SSECN), SURVICE Engineering, and EarthNC, Inc. announce an exciting new tri-partnership that will provide SSECN users with the benefit of 25 million soundings acquired and processed with the ARGUS (Autonomous Remote Global Underwater Surveillance) system. The Salty Southeast Cruisers' Net is the FIRST web site to offer easy access to ARGUS data.

Effective immediately, users of the SSECN's "Chart View" pages can click a simple checkbox, thereby opening a new ARGUS layer, set over up-to-date images of the NOAA nautical charts. Once selected, the ARGUS layer will display color coded markers which depict the tide corrected solution of soundings gathered by ARGUS cooperative research vessels. This new SSECN tool will be continuously updated as new ARGUS data is received. It will provide the Southeastern USA cruising community with yet another valuable resource to help make mariner's time on the water a safer and more enjoyable experience.

SSECN has worked closely with ARGUS project manager, John Hersey, and EarthNC co-founder, Virgil Zetterlind, to integrate ARGUS data into the SSECN's EarthNC powered "Chart View" pages. Plans are also underway to include ARGUS's sounding data as a layer in EarthNC's Marine Charts & Weather iPhone app in a future update.

Salty Southeast Cruisers' Net co-founder and Editorial Director, Claiborne S. Young, comments:

"We could not have brought this new, exciting resource to the cruising community without the tireless work and cooperation of EarthNC and SURVICE Engineering. The sole impetus for all three of our companies was to make the valuable data gathered by the ARGUS project available to the cruising community in a simple, easy to use and understand format. Working together, we believe that goal has been achieved!"

John Hersey, ARGUS Project Manager, adds:

"SSECN readers are the ideal audience for ARGUS solutions, and we're very excited about this opportunity to provide added value for under-surveyed waterways such as the ICW to those who can most benefit from it. With the power of EarthNC and the SSECN focus on providing what matters to the cruiser, this partnership represents a major step in the progression of cooperative surveying. The combined expertise will add to the continued development of outputs that will endlessly improve the benefit for recreational boaters. We also look forward to input from SSECN readers in the form of soundings, feedback, and local knowledge to make the solutions even better."

EarthNC's Zetterlind adds:
"The ARGUS soundings data, supported by SSECN, is an important and innovative approach to surveying that compliments traditional navigational data sources. It has huge potential for our customers and is a natural fit for both our web-based and mobile offerings."

II. How Does It Work

It's easy to peruse ARGUS data on our Salty Southeast Cruisers' Net "Chart View" pages. Below, we provide several examples of how to make use of this neat, new tool. It might be a good idea to print out the rest of this section, so you can easily follow the step by step instructions below.

Please go to:

http://cruisersnet.net/cruisersnet-marine-map/?ll=31.3522166,-81.3315333&z=15

This link will take you to a Chart View page, centered on coastal Georgia's Little Mud River section of the AICW. As anyone who has even a passing acquaintance with the Waterway already knows, this is the worst of the worst when it comes to AICW Problem Stretches.

Now, look just above the chart image, and you will see a series of check boxes striking out from the left margin. Just under the "Diesel Prices" checkbox is a NEW selection, labeled "Argus (MLLW)." Click in this checkbox.

Voila, a lot changes on the chart image you are viewing. First, look at the pop-up "ARGUS Legend." You will see that depths are depicted by colored circles, and the legend shows which colors indicate which depths.

Now, move your pointer over the chart image, and drag it to the south. Notice the "Red" circles near the southerly end of Little Mud River. It's easy to see where the shallowest water is located.

Now, just to continue this example, follow the track of the AICW by dragging the chart image south and west as the Waterway crosses Altamaha Sound, and then moves west to Buttermilk Sound. You will see the Argus sounding circles wherever depths are less than 12 feet. Notice that hard by the two Navigational Alerts we have previously established in these bodies of water, ARGUS found less than ideal depths! Kind of nice to see confirmation of our earlier work!

Suppose the ARGUS data is hiding some relevant piece of info on the chart. Just click in the ARGUS checkbox again, and presto-chango all the ARGUS data, including the pop-up legend, disappears.

Let's try another example on for size. Go to:

http://cruisersnet.net/cruisersnet-marine-map/?ll=30.05545,-81.3684666&z=15

This link will take you to a Chart View Window centered on a portion of the AICW between Jacksonville Beach and St. Augustine, Florida.

Now, once again, click the "Argus(MLLW)" checkbox. The pop-up "ARGUS Legend" appears as well as the ARGUS sounding circles. Notice that one of the ARGUS cooperating research craft explored the anchorage on the southern tier of what we call the "Pine Island Loop." You can see exactly what soundings this vessel discovered.

For an ever better look, click the "+" mark on the zoom slider on the left, upper side of the chart image. Now, you really get a detailed image of what soundings were found in any particular part of this anchorage.

Finally, let's journey to:

http://cruisersnet.net/cruisersnet-marine-map/?ll=26.49495,-82.04345&z=15

After following this link, you will see an image of the southernmost section of the Western Florida ICW, known as the "Miserable Mile." Yet again, click in the "Argus (MLLW)" checkbox, and check out the recorded depths along the "Miserable Mile." You can see the Waterway has some problems near Picnic Island!"

And, that's how it works! Please feel free and encouraged to bring up Chart View images of the coastline(s) of interest to you, turn the new ARGUS layer on and off, and check out the ARGUS soundings data.

What a GREAT tool, and we are honored, along with our EarthNC and SURVICE - ARGUS partners, to bring this capability to the cruising community. Just take a moment to read the cautions below, and then it's off to the races!

III. A Few Words of Caution

Even though our ARGUS data will be continuously updated, things could, and very well may, change between visits to any particular waters by an ARGUS cooperating research vessel. It is also possible that an ARGUS cooperating research vessel got lucky, and found deeper water than you may encounter by deviating only slightly from their track.

Thus, the ARGUS data on the Salty Southeast Cruisers' Net should be used as another navigational tool, albeit a very useful one, but NOT as your sole means to find the depths your vessel needs to stay off the bottom!

You will also note that the "ARGUS Legend" informs all users that the depicted soundings are "Tide Corrected," and that "Soundings Over 12 ft [Are] Not Displayed." This latter stricture is due to a current limitation in the number of data points which can be displayed in Google Maps. The easiest way to overcome this limitation was to exclude soundings deeper than 12 feet, as 12 foot depths are plenty deep for 99.9% of all cruising craft.

IV. NONE of This Would Have Been Possible Without the Support of Our Sponsors

I don't mean to imitate "Pete and Re-Peat," but, yet again, may I be so bold as to remind the cruising community that bringing the ARGUS data to all of you in a highly usable form would simply not have been possible without the loyal support of our sponsors.

As was said just last week during our MarinaLife partnership announcement, we respectfully ask our fellow cruisers to patronize our sponsors whenever possible, and take a moment to thank them for their support of the cruising community, by way of their support for the Salty Southeast Cruisers' Net!

And, of course, if you happen to own or manage a marine related business, and would like to participate in the record shattering popularity our web site has already enjoyed during 2012, please give us a call at 336-266-1369!

OK, that's all for now. Good luck and good cruising to all!

Claiborne S. Young

Salty Southeast Cruisers' Net

http://www.CruisersNet.net

CruisersNet@triad.twcbc.com