Download the Fakarava Bommies.zip file and and unzip. See OpenCPN directions below. The original file (suitable for Raymarine) is also included. Use at your own risk! No guarantees!! It is ALWAYS prudent to have a bow-watch when navigating reefy areas. Thanks to Kevin Hiscox for sharing... "This is Kevin Hiscox on S/V Mat-Lau III. We are a Lagoon 500 and we have spent the past 2 years sailing French Polynesia, and most of that time in the Tuamotus. We have got to know Fakarava Atoll very well and I have developed a gpx file for all of the bommies on the eastern side. The source information has come from existing charts, my extensive google earth mapping, and from numerous visual observations. While I can never guarantee that I have mapped all bommies, I think there are not many that I have missed." --------------- OpenCPN 5.0-5.2 --------------- 1. Put this file in a folder in your Documents folder. I recommend "Documents/Tracks and Waypoints/" 2. In OpenCPN, open up the Route and Mark Manager. 3. Click on the Layers tab 4. To just view and play with this file, without making a permanent change, click on "Create Temporary Layer" and when the Open File box opens, navigate to where you stored the file. 5. This file will load into OpenCPN. From the Layers tab, you can (a) Make all the waypoint names disappear (to declutter) (b) Hide and show the Layer (when you leave Fakarava, make all the X's disappear). (c) Delete the Layer If you load as a Temporary Layer, the layer (but not your original file in your Documents folder) will be automatically deleted by OpenCPN when you restart OpenCPN. If you load as a Persistant Layer, it will stay in OpenCPN until you Delete it from the Layer's tab. To see the waypoints...Move your chart to Fakarava (approx 16-30N 145-30W) and you should see a bunch of small red X's in Fakarava with waypoint names fbXXX. Each X denotes the presence of a "bommie" (coral head) charted by Kevin Hiscox on s/v Mat-Lau III. --------------- WHY NOT LOAD THE GPX FILE FROM THE "IMPORT GPX" BUTTON AT THE BOTTOM OF THE ROUTE & MARK MANAGER SCREEN --------------- If you load this group of waypoints using the Import GPX button, it will load all these (many) waypoints into your Waypoints database. You will lose the ability to turn off the waypoint names with one click, or hide all these waypoints with one click, or delete them all easily when you leave Fakarava. --------------- Techie tip... if you would like to change the icon used to represent the bommies... --------------- 0. Figure out the OpenCPN gpx name for the waypoint icon you want to use (make a waypoint, then export it as gpx from Opencpn, open it with a text editor, find the xxx for that waypoint. 1. Make a copy of the file 2. Open the file with any text editor. Notepad will work, but a "code" editor is better. 3. Search and replace xmred with your replacement icon code which you figured out in step 0.