Florida Marine Tracks / ISLA Mapping

Name: Florida Marine Tracks / ISLA Mapping
Address: Orlando, FL, 32801, US
Telephone: +14074637216

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Florida Marine Tracks / ISLA Mapping

Florida Marine Tracks LLC (FMT), a Navico Inc. Using FMT requires great attention to detail. It is not for recommended amateurs or novice shallow water boaters.

ISLA Mapping provides thousands of miles of precisely drawn marine navigation tracks on the most detailed and accurate map available anywhere along with unsurpassed super hi-resolution color aerial imagery for GPS chart plotters. mapping partner provides detailed marine cartography available on SDHC and micro chips for all of Florida for use in Navico chart plotters including Simrad, Lowrance, and

B&G units. FMT is unique among the current market of available mapping chips in that it provides 1) the highest quality and most recent ortho-rectified aerial color photography available in the market and it is specially enhanced for brightness and color helpful for use on the water , 2) thousands of miles precisely drawn detailed navigation tracks that were run at low tide suitable for flats and bay boats and other watercraft that can run in the shallows, and 3) a base map that is corrected to provide the current exact location of navigation aids including Daymarkers, Buoys, Signs as well as other mapping vector components that are missing on other products such as numerous signs, posts, concrete abutments and even many PVC stakes. By way of comparison, no competitor currently offers 1) imagery that comes even remotely close the overall quality that FMT provides, 2) detailed navigation tracks, or 3) navigation aides corrected for actual positions. It was developed and tested over many years and designed exclusively for smaller and shallow running flats and bay boats that draft 13.5" or less at rest. The quality of the FMT imagery is unsurpassed and in its raw state offers resolution at as high as 6 inches and in one area as high as 3 inches. All of Everglades National Park is covered at 6” and most of the rest of S. FL covered at 1’ or better. These high quality images provide resolution at a level that surpasses the ability of the most recent chart plotters to fully interpret as most units can read imagery down to approximately 3 feet. Thus, as the units become more capable in this regard we expect the photos FMT provides will become even clearer and that is why we elected to provide the imagery at its full resolution on the chips. The accuracy of the inshore location of the navigational aides is unsurpassed and we endeavored to correct them to the accuracy of 1’ so if you see a marker or a sign on the map you can rest assured it is exactly at that location (and if not, there was one there very recently). If you are frustrated with your dingy, fuzzy, dated, black and white, and missing chart plotter imagery you are sure to be much happier running with FMT. If you seek some direction on how to get from point A to point B and want a plethora of alternatives at a glance you will really appreciate FMT as it is extremely comprehensive. If you wish you could rely more on your chart plotter to get more situational awareness of the shallows around you in the back country to find new fishing areas, FMT provides this detailed insight as you can see much of what of what is around you in the water in the imagery. FMT even provides all of the Everglades National Park markers noted and placed on the map in their exact locations and a lot of PVC stakes too to help in navigating. If you are new to an area and have no idea where to run, you can run with FMT like a local pro. There are tons of proven shortcuts and tight runs but they do require great attention to detail to negotiate. FMT is not for the faint of heart but for those with a penchant for exploring challenging areas, it will successfully guide you in the shallows. Just ask any of our experienced FMT users. FMT chips currently run only on the Navico line of chart plotters but we hope to include other manufacturers soon.

06/06/2026

We talk to boaters every week about gps equipment and what we like to refer to as “perfect ergonomics”. We ran across this older pathfinder at a marina recently running our charts. These photos represent an excellent example of the set up and ergonomics we encourage our customers to try to achieve. The practical advantages to a set up like this vs a flush mount are huge for inshore boaters. This customer can get his hand to the machine in an instant from the wheel, he has a completely unobstructed view and can quickly change the angle of the screen by rotating if desired. It’s also no problem to keep your hand on the unit for periods of time while underway and it’s the most secure as the unit can be removed in about 30 seconds for transport into the house or car avoiding all chip and unit theft risks. The only thing that could improve this set up ergonomically would be having the gimbal on an adjustable mount which would then allow the unit to be a couple of inches closer and allow for any height adjustment up or down all the while only having about a 4” footprint attachment to the console
and free up the area of black plexiglass
for something else like storage. That said, the set up on our rigs is very similar to this and makes for the easiest navigation using our chart. By way of contrast, flush mounts requiring the boater to extend their arm all the way out to touch the unit are far more challenging to use with a detailed chart and with a fixed viewing angle are less than ideal as boaters are sometimes sitting and sometimes standing changing the view to the screen to less than optimal. Flush mounts located behind a wheel and or under a wheel are the least desirable mounting locations and on some boats it makes using our chart effectively almost impossible while running. The easier it is for you to see and touch the screen and manipulate the buttons or k**b the happier you will be using our charts.
If you are having a boat built or refurbishing one you should take this into account. Most boat builders love to flush mount everything as their go to default as they are more concerned with aesthetics and what they think shows their boat product with the cleanest lines as opposed to providing optimal gps functional utility for you out on the water. It’s a big deal. We talk to many boaters who realize too late the downside to ignoring these considerations. For many new boaters the issue is not even on their radar to consider and they find out too late the ergonomic downside to their flush mount and they express a lot of disappointment that their builder failed to have this important discussion with them even when they knew the they were going to be running FMT. Many of these boaters had to then spend more money and time to remove the flush mount and set it up the way it should have been from the beginning
and they blame their builder and sales
rep for not telling them about the alternative set ups.

05/31/2026

It’s easy to get from Key West to Naples across the Gulf with conditions like this. Being out 35 miles from land in a small skiff where a breakdown would definitely be a major problem can get a person worried but so far so good. Found a huge school of Jacks out here being followed by some Cobia and spinner sharks. Couldn’t catch a cobia or jack without getting sharked.

05/31/2026

ISLA ran nearly 250 miles today from the lower keys over to Choko and then up to Goodland and Naples. A couple of new tracks were added in the 10000 islands and we found a fair number of marker and buoy changes around the main passes at Naples. Some navigation posts were removed on the run into Choko. We didn’t find any track changes. The map edits will be reflected on charts mailing out June 5th. We also marked the coordinates of about 100 ghost trap buoys out in the Gulf.

05/29/2026

Isla is headed to the 10000 islands today. Only about 85 miles to go across the Gulf. It should be a 200+ mile mapping trip today.

05/24/2026

Our take on GO Units and all Touch Screen Only Units

All GO machines are fully supported. They run ISLA chips fine and there is no delay or lag if the unit is working properly. These units were discontinued in 2022 and replaced with the NSX.
We get calls every week about these units. There are still plenty of them being sold new. This is our take on GO Units and all touch only units.

We do not recommend today and have never recommended any GO units for use with our charts. That doesn’t mean they don’t work with our charts. It doesn’t mean the images look poor on them. And it doesn’t mean the units are laggy and run slow as many often suggest on blogs. What it does mean is that GO units have functional issues that are inherent in any touch only display that make it far more difficult to use on the water than it could be and should be as discussed in detail below. If you want to run ISLA charts and don’t already have a GO unit, don’t get one and if you just bought a brand new one, we recommend you exchange it for a recommended unit if you want to be the happiest out there on the water.

The GO 7” and 9” Units are the lowest resolution displays Navico manufactured at only 384k pixels. By way of comparison, their typical high-resolution display is more than a million pixels (about 270% superior) so it’s not even close. In the GO series, only the GO 12” units are high resolution. We only recommend the higher resolution displays as at each zoom level you can see more real estate around your boat at every zoom level.

GO units are “budget” units designed to capture the budget minded end of the consumer market and therefore the capabilities of the GO displays reflect their lower retail cost. It is not an accident they are inexpensive.

GO units (and also NSX) units are touch screen only units. They are just a piece of glass to interact with. There are no buttons and no k**bs. They appear sleek, modern and clean and for novices to GPS and boating (and particularly those on a tight budget) these machines are visually enticing and can be an easy sell. We hear from GO owners every week and budget buyers who want to know why we do not recommend any GO units for use with ISLA charts.

Touch screen ONLY units are the worst choice for users of our charts that intend to routinely run inshore. For boaters that run offshore only, touch screen only units can work just fine but that is not the group that typically uses ISLA charts. GO units may not work exactly when you touch them causing a delay. If your finger is wet for any reason, the unit may not immediately respond. With ISLA charts, a unit response of 10 seconds too late can be too late in many locations.

The only way to make a GO machine do anything is to touch the glass. Every time you do that cross hairs appear on the screen where your finger touched and the screen locks up waiting for you to drop a waypoint there or to zoom to that location. The boat icon will no longer move with the boat on the map when the screen is locked. To get the boat to move again you have to unlock the screen. To do that you have to touch a tiny area on the screen to clear the cursor. If you can’t touch it for any reason the screen stays locked until you do. It is very hard if not impossible sometimes to steady your hand to touch that little spot on the screen while the boat is at speed bouncing around. I can’t do it very easily on a 16” display let alone a tiny 7” or 9”. This is very problematic as most users of ISLA charts touch their screen a lot. Some touch it hundreds of times over the course of a day. By comparison, most users tell us they touch their Garmin map or CMAP or other general reference government-based chart maybe 5-8 times. So, using a touch only unit with our charts is a real pain and can be frustrating because you can’t make the unit do exactly what you want when you want with any consistency or precision. Our chart is something you interact with a lot and use in a proactive manner. It provides a lot of fine detail and you will be zooming in and out a lot looking at things when in unfamiliar areas. Sometimes, your hand may stay on the unit for periods of time. It is not a chart you just turn on and may refer to it a few times over the course of a day. So, the easier the unit is to use, the happier you will be. The harder it is use, the more frustrated you will be.
We think GO units are fine for offshore in deep water or general reference charts that provide little detail, but it’s a bad choice for our chart inshore. That said, many customers use them and will say they are happy with it. But when we question them, we find that using a GO machine is the limit of their experience with ISLA. They don’t know what it’s supposed to be like. They just know what they used to have (mostly Garmin or CMAP) and our chart is so superior to what they used to see all day and because it addresses their chart issues so substantively, managing any unit functional issues are discounted in their mind as something they are willing to tolerate and manage. The functional issues of GO units seem to be more than outweighed by their increased satisfaction with the chart differences. That’s the case for many but only until these boaters go on someone else’s boat that has a unit we recommend and sees for themselves what it is supposed to be like. Only then do they realize how much nicer and easier it can be. It’s especially so, for GO users who have inferior ergonomics (usually a flush mount) which makes using the GO machine the most challenging. GO machines are often mounted underneath and behind steering wheels making them nearly impossible to effectively manage and also with less-than-ideal viewing angles.

So, if you run inshore and want to use an ISLA chart, we do not recommend you consider getting any Touch Only GPS. These displays have all of the functional disadvantages and provide no advantages vs. units with buttons and/or k**bs.

GO units also load chips only from the back of the display making chip access more challenging and particularly so for flush mounts creating a higher risk of dropping the chip and losing it trying to get it in or out with any flush mount.

So, if we don’t recommend GO units why do we sell them? We get that question a lot. Because we are a dealer and dealers have to sell all of the Navico equipment and because the units are still suitable for offshore use in our opinion and also for use inshore with general reference charts. We let the customer decide. But at the same time, unlike most other retailers, we will tell everyone our honest opinion about the noteworthy differences in all of the equipment we sell because we don’t want anyone to call us back asking why we didn’t tell them. There are small and large differences in equipment depending on the price points. We sell the lots of GPS equipment but we are also honest with all customers who may inquire about the differences particularly when running ISLA charts.

05/24/2026

The 2026 NFL Update Starts Shipping Tuesday May 26th. All Updates must be ordered at the ISLA website store where step by step detailed update instructions are provided. The update is totally new and the chip will need to be set up from scratch just like any new chart. Map Layer settings from any previous chip will not be recognized. Unit/Map Set up instructions are also provided at the ISLA website. If you are ordering any Update it is a good time to review your unit set up. We have seen 3 units already this week that did not have WAAS activated and they had been running around like that for years and did not even know what it is. If you don't know what WAAS is that could also be you so we encourage you to watch the How to Set up Your Unit Video posted at our website which also shows you how to set up your chart. The map layers on this update are slightly different from what is noted in the video but the procedure is identical. Also, it is not necessary to back up your Updated Chip as noted in the set up video. You should skip this step and ignore it. If you do not know the date/age of the chip you are using and want to update, you should call the ISLA Shipping Hotline to inquire to make sure your order is placed correctly and there are no process delays. If you have any shipping or timing questions, the ISLA shipping hotline 630 247 3199 is the correct contact to call. The shipping hotline is NOT open for the Memorial Holiday weekend but will be open beginning Tuesday morning.

05/16/2026

The long-awaited NFL 2026 Update is scheduled for release by the end of this month. This update was the most intense and focused update we have completed to date taking up more than a year of continuous effort and we believe most of our users will appreciate the extra time we devoted to creating it. The chart is now complete and we are waiting to receive our next bulk shipment of microchips from our supplier scheduled for next week in anticipation of increased demand. If the shipment arrives as scheduled, we will be ready to ship the new NFL chart by the end of this month. However, UPS has been unreliable in our recent experience, so the release is pending UPS delivery performance. If they fail us as has been a regular occurrence this year, it could cause a delay and we will make another announcement regarding projected updated timing. We have increased our chip size for this latest NFL update to 64 GB as the NFL dataset is now too large to fit on 32 GB which supports the last version of the NFL chart. If you have been using our current NFL chart, we have an updated production process that will allow the larger chips to run in the same unit you have been using. Our tests so far this month with the new dataset and larger chip indicated there was no difference in user experience. NFL and SFL charts will continue to have to be run separately as our dataset is now too large for both chips to run at the same time. The noteworthy changes in the latest NFL release include all new images. Some differences in the new chart you will notice immediately is there is now a NOAA basemap provided in the ocean areas where there are no aerial images provided. This now matches the basemap format we made in our last SFL update. The old blue basemap with NOAA map features on top in the ocean is now replaced by the actual NOAA charts. These are the same charts you could obtain from NOAA and roll out on your desk. On the west coast, from Tampa all the way to Apalachicola, we included an additional dataset of Ocean images that extend much further out than the previous chart and these images show some bars and shallow areas that many customers had been hoping to see including near Alligator Point/Carabelle and also at Cedar Key. However, this added dataset only appears at a more zoomed out level as the native resolution of those ocean images is not as clean as the images provided near shore. These ocean images look great zoomed out and are useful but we found that close in zoom levels for this dataset were not up to our quality standard and consequently we programmed the ocean images to turn off at closer in zoom levels showing the NOAA basemap instead which is more useful. The cut off level for the ocean images is at the zoom level where they begin to visually degrade on the display. But the images we selected for near shore do extend a little further out in the nature coast area than the 2025 version of NFL. This is the case around Aucilla River and also in the Crystal River area. This release includes images from multiple data sources over different time periods. We took extra effort to secure the lowest tide images available anywhere and it appears for virtually all challenging boating locations the images are very low tide images and in some cases appear to be negative tides. Portions of Cedar Key in the back are dry in the images. In the Jacksonville area, Mill Cove is shown at near a 0’ tide and much of the marsh area all the way to Georgia is also shown at very low water levels. Midnight Pass at Sarasota is now shown with the cut through the beach and our track through the pass. At Tarpon Springs, the north end of Honeymoon Island that has a new cut through due to the last hurricane is shown in the image also with the track we took through it in March. There is also a new cut through at the east end of Haulover canal at Mosquito Lagoon that gets little traffic but is now shown as it currently exists with the PVC stakes installed recently. The new images provided for the Lagoon including Georges Bank, Shotgun, and north up through the Ponce Inlet area are lower tide images than the 2025 NFL chart. In the Lagoon, which is undergoing a grass and restoration process, we did not provide more developed tracks there on purpose. Although many boats venture far off our tracks navigating into shallow flats and for many boats it is possible to do that, we elected to keep the chart’s tracks as is in hopes to minimize traffic at speed in the most sensitive areas. The North end of the Indian River and portions of the Lagoon have shown some signs of sea grass recovery recently and we hope to see more recovery. With respect to increased coverage on this release, on the east coast we have included all of Indian River County so this version extends all the way to the south end of the County. Thus, there is an overlap between the NFL and SFL charts at Indian River County. On the west coast, the overlay for Sarasota County was kept in place. Another noteworthy feature we included in this release applies to those that may fish in Farm 13 Stick Marsh which is included in this update. We provided something unique for the portion of the eastern portion Stick Marsh that was flooded about 10 years ago. As you may know, before the area was flooded to create the fish sanctuary, in approximately 2014 and 2015, the area was heavily excavated with large machines creating numerous large deep holes and lengthy trenches. We were able to secure aerial images of the area at the time the excavation was complete but before it was flooded showing every hole and trench out there and those images are provided in this release. If you run this body of water, the photos show all of the bottom features for that excavation work was complete about a decade ago.
All updates must be ordered at the ISLA website Store where it says Update My Charts. Detailed instructions for updates are provided there along with ISLA update policy and update contact info for any questions about your account. This image update applies only to compatible Navico mfg units at this time. We will try to have the updated images available on Raymarine units later this year but we are not sure of the timing.

05/13/2026

ISLA is in the Florida Keys this month. This week we ran from the lower Keys to Tavernier and into a portion of lower ENP. We marked hundreds of changes to signs, buoys, markers and stakes but we didn’t find any necessary changes to tracks. Most of the changes were found near downtown Islamorada. It seems the pattern of adding signs, moving signs and adding or removing buoys and markers never ceases there. At Indian Key we decided to remove the boat ramp icon because it appears this ramp is not likely to reopen. It looks like they did some clearing of the mangroves in the wheel ditch to improve visibility and passage. Buoys were added at both ends of the narrow canal noting the recent change to idle zone only. All of the changes to buoys and PVC stakes around Whale Harbor were also completed. A few obstacles were also found to now be removed and were deleted from the chart. At Cudjoe Bay some ingress and egress points were edited for new markers and buoys. At Bow Channel, a couple of the stakes and markers were moved once again as seems to be the case every few months. We also found more channel markers that were broken and Buoys had been attached including at the 7 mile bridge. The rusted metal broken posts remain dangerous obstacles near the waters surface at the buoy. While this practice may serve the public well in the short run we find that in most cases, the Coast Guard does not replace these broken posts in some cases for years, leaving the obstacle there without replacing the post. We saw this recently at Tarpon Springs, where we found a Coast Guard vessel reapplying a buoy in deep water to a blown over Marker created by hurricane Ian leaving the Marker there bent over at the water surface with a large amount of slack in the rope for the buoy just inviting someone to run close to the buoy as many do inviting disaster as was the case in Tavernier recently where a bay boat was speared by one of these blown over markers.

05/13/2026

ISLA was in Mosquito Lagoon and the north end of the Indian River this month. We marked a number of changes to Buoys, markers and signs. We also added the new large breakwater that was installed at Parish Park. Tracks in this area were adjusted for this new infrastructure. We didn’t find any track changes other than at the breakwater. Some obstacles were also removed.

04/28/2026

The reliability of UPS this year seems to continue to deteriorate. Something substantive has changed within UPS this year creating increased logistics issues. For the last several months, we have experienced a lot of this...We have used them all but it is not possible to know which shipper provides the best reliability over the course of a year. We may have to switch back to a different shipper again and see how it goes.

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Orlando, FL
32801

Telephone

+14074637216

Website

http://www.ISLAmapping.com/

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