Navigating on land with Google Maps is as popular today as piloting by paper maps was decades ago. Now, thanks to a partnership between the Marine Industries Association of South Florida (MIASF) and the region’s certified Google Street View content provider, a first-of-its-kind resource has been launched that brings the popular Google technology onto the Intracoastal and network of connected waterways, as well as to the many waterfront and land-based businesses serving boaters.
“For the first time ever, boaters will be able view detailed information about where they want to go when they are spending a day on the water in South Florida by simply tapping their phones to see what’s around them,” says Steve Baum, president of Boat Owners Warehouse, which along with MarineMax is providing the mapping boats.
“They can be reminded of a great place they’ve visited before or find a fuel dock they didn’t know existed.”
Waterway View and its companion mobile app are fully interfaced with Google Maps programming, giving boaters immediate access to information as they cruise. The Google Street View ‘blue line’ will follow the waterway, helping boaters choose their destinations with the benefit of visual familiarization anywhere along the mapped waterways in Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade, and portions of Monroe counties. The Waterway View app will be a free download from the Apple app and Google Play stores, and on MIASF’s website, www.MIASF.org. Waterway mapping begins in February in Broward County, with completion anticipated by summer 2018 in Key Largo. The app will be available for download in June.
