The USCG districts, distributed in the whole USA, are in charge of the maintanace of the navigational aids. They update daily, thru the Local Notice to Mariners, over 54 thousands navigation aids in the USA.
USCG also distribute a weekly update of LNM to inform the boater about: Shoaling, Dredging, Events, etc.
Both services, daily and weekly, are included in the Aqua Map - USCG data service. The objective is to inform as soon as possible the captain about the changes in the navigation aids as well as to provide details useful for a safe trip.
NOTE: It is necessary to have an active Master subscription to have access to the USCG data.
Coast Guard Settings
From the general Settings page you can open the Coast Guard data settings page, where you can manage the feature.
Please notice that in this page you can manage the data from the different Coast Guard countries, currently (United States and Canada).
From the top, there is first a common section to manage the database:
- Download Coast Guard DB: to enable the download and update of the Coast Guard database.
NOTE: as the label says, this info is available only in US & Canada. - Update now: to immediately download the latest available database.
- Automatic update: you can choose the automatic update logic: "Never" will never update automatically the database (you shall press manually the "Update now" button), "WiFi" will do an automatic daily update each time the app is active and connected to a WiFi network and "Always" is doing the update (daily) with any type of data connection (even cellular connection).
NOTE: with the "Always" option you can have extra costs depending on your mobile contract.
Then there is the United State section:
- Enable U.S. Coast guard data on map: to show the USCG data on the map.
- Icon size on Map: to select the preferred icon size of USCG navigation aids.
- NOAA Buoys display: to choose how to show the standard NOAA Navigation aids when the USCG buoys are drawn. This option is useful because most of the NOAA buoys will "conflict" with the USCG buoys, because NOAA uses the USCG Lights List but updating them much rarely. You will find USCG navaids more accurate.
Then there is the Canada section (see NAVWARNs).
Lights List
As soon as you activate the USCG Data you will see on the map all buoys, beacons and lights, coming from the USCG, with icons that are the same than the NOAA ones with some additional info (eg ). A small USCG flag is placed at the bottom of each icon, to differenciate them from the standard NOAA symbols. An optional circle-icon could be placed on the top-left to highlight an LNM applied to that navigational aid, as follow:
- Navigation alert: in this position there is a possible danger for the navigation.
- Missing aid: in this position there should be a buoy but (for any reason) is no more present.
- Out of position aid: in this position there should be a buoy but it moved away.
- General information: in this position there is some information useful for the navigation.
- Temporary aid: is an aid added for a short term and that will be removed "soon".
Tapping on a USCG buoy you can see more info for that object.
Local Notice to Mariners (LNM)
In Aqua Map you can also access to the LNM published by the USCG and that are referred to specific areas.
LNM info page
Tap anywhere on the map and if there is a LNM (or more) related to that area, it will be listed in the Map information dialog.
Select the "USCG: LNM info" to enter the details:
LNMs can contain info about General Notices, Advance Notices, Shoaling, Dredging and Events and you can check them using the menu available at the bottom of the USCG LNM info page (see above).
LNM search
Open the Search page, select the "Places and POIs" tab, select the USCG LNM item in the "Search filters" and type your search.
In the example above, you are searching for all the LNMs that contain the word "Lockwood".