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Today I thought I would highlight some Google products and tips sailors should be aware of to enhance your ability to share your experience, enhance your productivity, or even help with your cruising kitty. For years now, I've been writing a blog all about Google Earth - and have a fair bit of experience with a variety of Google products. Here's a few of my favorites, why they can be useful for sailors, and some important tips:

1. Gmail - Fantastic e-mail! It allows you to consolidate multiple e-mail accounts into a single account, manage your contacts, very accessible, powerful search and filtering, great SPAM control, and much more. Important tip: Offline use (set it up through the "Settings" mode). Offline lets you download your E-mail and then still use Gmail to read, search, and respond while you don't have a connection. Not only that, but it enables a very handy "Flaky Connection Mode" that is invaluable with weak WIFI connections sailors often encounter.
2. Google Earth - Fantastic way to research places you are going. Turn on the Geographic Web layer to see pictures and important information about places you want to visit. There are many other layers in Google Earth that can open a wealth of information about locations. You can even see the undersea surface in 3D now - so, you know what its like underneath your boat while on long passages. Google Earth is also a great way to document your travels. Show your passages (GPS tracks or just draw approximate routes), show your photos tied to location, or just put placemarks of significant places or events during your travels. Just read this blog and look for Google Earth content for examples of what you can do. Important tip: Google Earth can be used when you don't have an Internet connection using a local cache on your computer. The application remembers the last few places you visit. Simply peruse your next destination area and zoom in to view the imagery you want to remember. You can use Google Earth without the connection and still view those places! Very handy on a passage. You Google Earth content can also be viewed with Google Maps. Read Google Earth Blog for many, many tips. There's a special category dedicated to sailing-related stories.
3. Google Maps - when you just need 2D maps, Google Maps is another great mapping tool for looking or sharing information. Your same Google Earth KML files can be viewed with Google Maps as well, and in some cases is a better way to view them on your web site. You can also use what's called "My Maps" to create and share maps. Very handy tools.
4. Picasa Web Albums - Your free Google account entitles you to a free amount of photo upload space on PIcasa Web Albums. You can also upgrade the space for a modest fee. You can place slideshows of your photos on your blog or web site and create galleries of your photo albums.
5. Picasa - a really great free photo processing tool that runs on Mac or Windows. It can help you store, manage, process, and organize your digital photos. It also has integration with Google Maps/Earth, and Picasa Web Albums. It does a great job of dealing with large numbers of images.
6. Panoramio - Another free photo service from Google allows you to upload photos and map them. Your photos are then viewable by anyone using Google Maps or Google Earth when users turn on the photos layers (your photos have to be approved first - usually takes less than 1 month - they prefer only scenic shots - not people shots).
7. Mobile Phones - Many of Google's applications can be used from your smart phone. You can access your Gmail, check your calendar, do Google searches and more. If you have a smart phone like the iPhone, you might be able to use applications like Google Earth and Maps to help you find your way around. I use Google Earth on my phone to have a hand-held way to check on aerial photography of places we are sailing for visual reference.
8. Adsense - if you have a really popular web site or blog, you can actually use Google's Adsense program to place ads on your site which can earn you some money - at least to help pay for some of your online expenses. If you have thousands of visitors a day, it could amount to a noticeable amount of income. You have to insert snippets of code in your web site's pages to allow Google to place ads from their huge advertiser market place. Google automatically chooses ads based on the relevant content of your pages. So, ads are mostly of interest to some of your readers. Only a small percentage of your readers will click on ads, but Google pays competitive rates for legitimate clicks on ads. Just don't click on the ads yourself or tell others to do so. That's against the rules of being an Adsense partner and your account can be shut down.

Google is constantly enhancing tools and data which are helpful for travel related experiences. If you are technology oriented, you will especially enjoy learning about some of these products and trying them out. But, even if you aren't, you can really make use of these free applications to help you learn about places, and share your experiences with your friends, family or more.

I've uploaded a bunch of photos today. First we have an album of photos from the passage to Cartagena (which I also added to yesterday's long write-up about the trip). In this album are photos of our big fish catch!

Also, I've published a very short video clip of one of dozens of clips I took while watching the Carnival Parade in Aruba (see photos from this post):

And finally, here is the last of the 360 panoramas I took during the Aruba Jeep Tour we took which was such a great experience. This one was taken at Wariruri Bay on top of the natural bridge there:

Wariruri Bay, Aruba in Caribbean

Our friends Andy and Aliza arrived on Tuesday for some fun in the sun and a taste of living on Tahina. Since North Carolina has been having an unusually cold winter, they are really loving the warm weather down here. On Tuesday evening, we sat at anchor just south of the main port in the most convenient anchorage in Aruba. We had a really nice sunset since there was dust in the sky from the winds. We found out that evening it can be fun to watch all the ship activity here. We watched a cruise ship depart just a couple hundred meters behind us. And lots of cargo and tanker vessels at anchor just a few miles southwest.

On Wednesday we relaxed a bit in the morning and then just before lunch took Tahina for a sail north. We were looking at the other potential anchorages. There are some nice beaches and hotels all along the coast here. Lots of water sports in the main area north of Oranjestad. We had to watch out for wind surfers, sailboats, fishing boats, parasailors, kitesurfers, etc. We eventually found a nice spot that has lots of snorkeling boats. The snorkeling was ok, but most of the coral was dead. The fish were plentiful, but obviously people have been hand feeding them (part of the reason for the coral dying). But, our guests enjoyed the views.

We sailed back later in the day and motored by the 3 cruise ships in port back to the main anchorage. We decided to go out for dinner and a movie. We got to try some local seafood at a place called Driftwood Seafood, which was really good.

Thursday we relaxed all morning on the boat. Andy and Aliza spent some time soaking up some sun and improving their tan. In the afternoon, we went shopping on shore, got ice cream, and enjoyed seeing the town. We had a nice dinner on board and another beautiful sunset. I got to spend some time setting up the new Nexus One smart phone Andy had brought with him. Google was kind enough to provide me with an evaluation unit. Lots of nice features, and I've been downloading some handy applications from their marketplace. We watched a movie while charging up the boat batteries.

Today we're doing an island tour. Andy and I will be doing some photography during the tour (he's a real shutterbug). I'll have lots of photos to process in the coming week.

While we were visiting the Washington-Slagbaai park in Bonaire last week, we managed to get a nice 360 panorama of one of the beaches. You can view the panorama below (After, hitting the "Play" button, I recommend the "FULLSCREEN" mode, then use the arrow keys or the mouse to turn your view). This is a very immersive experience that will let you see what it was like to stand on the rocks above the beach. To the west is the beautiful blue caribbean waters, the south the nice beach, to the east is the tallest point of bonaire (which is also inside the 13,500 acre park), you can see the desert vegetation, and the road and parking area for the beach. Check out the marker directly beneath your "feet".

360Cities.net is a partner of the Tahina Expedition and has the best collection of 360 panoramas around the world. It also has the best interface for view panoramas in their geo-spatial context (IMHO). You can view panoramas in Google Earth or Google Maps as well. Check out other Tahina Expedition panoramas here.

Earlier this month, you may have read how we flew a kite over the lovely "deserted" island of Petite Tabac near the Tobago Cays in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The same island used for shooting the scene where Elizabeth burned Jack Sparrow's rum in the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie. We flew a camera from the kite and took a bunch of photos from the sky. The aerial images have been given to Google who will later put them into Google Earth's imagery. Like what was done with our marina back in North Carolina back in November.

A friend of mine, Stewart Long of GonzoEarth , happens to specialize in processing imagery like this. He just yesterday finished taking the kite photos of Petite Tabac and stitching them together to capture the island from above. You can actually get an advanced look by viewing this file with Google Earth which overlays the kite photos. We've sent the imagery to Google, who will hopefully get it in Google Earth soon.

Oh, and here is a self-portrait taken as the kite was first going up (you can see the remote control panel in my gloved hands - the gloves are for winding the string on the big kite):

By the way, for a real technology treat, you can view the entire kite aerial shoot with a cool technology called Photosynth. This gives you a 3D perspective of the photos, but requires you to install some special software. Check it out here. Amazingly, all I had to do was install some software and upload the photos. Photosynth did the rest!

Tuesday was our last day in Bequia. It was a VERY productive day though! I spent a good portion of the day finishing set up on the new laptop. I had not backed up the windows partition on the old laptop. A foolish mistake for which yesterday's work is only the beginning. But, I managed to get the most critical work done rebuilding the Windows side of the laptop (under Boot Camp). This was critical because several navigation related applications we have only run on Windows. In particular, our boat charting/navigation software called RayTech, and our radio e-mail software.

First the new laptop had to be backed up, and then I had to partition the drive, install Windows, update the software multiple times, then install the software, and test it with our boat systems. Although very time consuming, the process went remarkably smoothly and I was done by mid-afternoon.

Meanwhile, I was able to do engine maintenance on the generator includings: oil change, oil and fuel filter change, zinc anode replacement, and belt adjustment. That was a big relief as I was about 75 engine-hours overdue.

We got word from Profurl (who makes the furling unit which broke), that they had a new unit packaged and ready to go by FedEx to Grenada. So, it should arrive in a few days when we get to the main island. We're having it sent to a marina near one of the main anchorages. Not sure what day its going to arrive yet though.

We got word our house has been shown several times during the past week. One person even looked twice. But, still no offer. Big news though: yesterday we finally had someone agree to buy my plane - it has been up for sale for 14 months. That's a big relief! Lots of good memories in the plane though - *sniffle*.

It's a shame we spent so much time here the last week, but hardly did any sightseeing. I had tried setting up a special dive to take the VideoRay out with a local dive shop. The hard part was identifying somewhere we could park Tahina near a dive site since we need somewhere with electrical power to drive the ROV. We also just got too busy to schedule it. The computer stuff took a lot of time as well.

We're leaving today at 6 AM. Hence the early morning post. We'll be headed to the northern-most island of Grenada called Carriacou. Not sure if they have Internet, so we may not report in for a couple of days.

Yesterday was a major milestone. I finally cleared all the customs and delivery hurdles and got the new laptop on board Tahina! I need to give a special thanks to an anonymous benefactor who made a big contribution towards the new laptop. And, I want to thank my friend Andy who took delivery of the new laptop in the US and arranged to ship the computer to me here in Bequia. I'll be thanking him again when he visits us in Aruba next month.

I spent yesterday afternoon and evening getting the new laptop situated. My hats off to Apple and their migration tool which very quickly migrated all the backed up data from my old laptop to the new computer. The only problem I encountered is that one of the licensed software packages requires registering to the new laptop, and it won't let me do that again without buying a secondary license. I also spent several hours downloading software updates on the slow Internet connection and getting them installed so the laptop is up to date.

Today I plan to build the boot camp partition on the laptop so I can install the navigation software on the laptop. Later I hope to retrieve the windows partiition on the old laptop (which I hadn't backed up), but we need to remove the hardrive from the broken laptop first. We'll also retrieve the 5 or 6 days of data I had put on the OSX side of the laptop which was not backed up - including some photos.

Meanwhile, the Profurl replacement furling part is finally being shipped to us today (I have a tracking number) from France. It will be going to a marina in Grenada which we'll pick up in a few days. We plan to leave early tomorrow to move down to Grenada - first to the island Carriacou where we will clear into customs and do some snorkeling.

We have started buying some items we want my friend Andy to bring out with him when he flies out to Aruba to visit us. He may need to pay some extra baggage fees, but it will be worth it verses normal shipping costs.

On Friday afternoon, two good things happened with deliveries: The pump part we've been waiting on for two weeks (a maintenance kit needed for our primary fresh water pump), finally arrived. Naturally, I had a very frustrating time disassembling the pump thanks to confusing instructions. But, the work was finally completed after 2.5 hours and we tried the pump: it worked! No leaks now. That was a big relief.

Meanwhile, the laptop finally arrived at customs here in Bequia late in the afternoon Friday. I went to sign for it, and found out they recommended getting a broker to fill out the paperwork. And, at 4PM it was too late to have it done. So, naturally we have to wait until Monday when they next open up. Oh goodie.

On Saturday, I decided to do some basic engine maintenance. Changing oils, fuel filters, checking belts, etc. I got about 50% of the work done on the two main engines. The generator still has to be done as well. One problem is that I need a new filter wrench. Couldn't find the one I thought I brought, and I walked all over town trying to find one for sale. But, I was happy to get done what I did. Karen also got some tasks done as well.

So, we decided to go out for dinner. We went to the only good tex-mex mexican restaurant we've found in the Caribbean. A place called "Tommy's Cantina" here in Bequia. Karen really liked the margarita she got when we last ate there, so we both ordered margaritas and a nice dinner. After dinner, we walked back to the dinghy and drove it to where we left Tahina anchored. Only, when we got there, there was no sign of Tahina! Oh my gosh...I drove around in a circle two or three times. Did we drag anchor?! Did someone steal it!? We had left the keys in the ignition. If someone stole it, they couldn't have gotten far. But, finally, I started going in bigger circles and suddenly saw Tahina on the other side of a boat we had been near - right where we left her!

Well....I think that Margarita was a little bit strong for me. You have to understand we had been parked in the same spot for 5 days. And, I have a pretty strong sense of direction - normally. Now I know why I rarely drink strong drinks! :-)

Today - Sunday - we took Tahina out for a sail. Although the furling unit is broken, it can still be deployed manually - but, we can't reef it. But, the winds weren't too strong today. We wanted to sail a few hours so we could make more fresh water with our water maker. We make about 15 gallons per hour. So, after our 5-hour sail we had added a good amount to our tanks. We also got some chores dones while we were sailing, but no fish were caught. As we were approaching Bequia, a local photographer was taking pictures of boats arriving. We'll probably buy one or two of his photos.

Here are some photos from Admiralty Bay in Bequia - the main anchorage of this beautiful island in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. When we arrived here on December 30th, the anchorage was crowded. Nearly 300 boats were here during New Year's Eve. This is a popular anchorage anyway because it caters to boaters. There are stores, restaurants, chandleries, a fuel barge that delivers to your boat, customs facilities, ferries, dive shops and more. In fact, that's why we're back here now. We have some boat work to do and mail to receive (the new laptop is on its way). It's easier to have parts delivered here than more remote places.

Here are a sample of pictures from Bequia - I'll probably add to this album as we process more photos here:

I haven't taken any 360 Panoramas here in Bequia. But, another sailor, named Honza Kudr, has taken a number of panos of Bequia (and other islands in the area). Here's one he did from his boat deck in Bequia:

Bequia, bay at Port Elizabeth - The Grenadines (Caribbean) in Grenadines

I've mentioned Petite Tabac in recent posts. It's a beautiful island located just outside the horseshoe reef protecting the main anchorage of the Tobago Cays - a marine park which is part of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Petite Tabac was used as the island where Elizabeth and Captain Jack Sparrow were stranded and Elizabeth burned his stockpile of rum in the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

I had been on the island once before, so I knew we had to go again and take some pictures. We took a 360 panorama from the deck of Tahina in the small anchorage. Surprisingly, four catamarans managed to squeeze in there for a few hours that day. I had never seen more than two. We also went ashore and took some kite aerial photos, but you'll have to wait a while to see the results of those (which will show up in Google Earth someday).

So, imagine yourself on the deck of Tahina and view this panorama. Make sure you zoom in (choose full screen too) and tilt your view up to look at the mast. Turn around to see the Tobago Cays, Canoun, Union Island, and many other islands and boats. (NOTE: The anchorage was choppy, so Tahina was bobbing on the seas. I tried to keep things level, but there are some stitching problems with the horizon if you look closely. Overall, I think it works though.)