GPS chart software

I have two GPS units without any chart data.  I would like to add the Nor Cal coast area, Bay and Delta, and a few Nor Cal lakes. 

Can you buy just the areas that you want or do have to buy the software for whole coast, plus Hawaii and Alaska, plus inland lakes?  That would cost more than both GPS units. I have a handheld with about 8 meg of memory and hardwired unit with an SD slot. 

Any suggestions appreciated.


Thanks,

Doug

You get a CD with everywhere on the CD, but an unlock code for only one region for I think 2 GPS units.  You can purchase more unlock codes to unlock other regions.
http://www.rocketcamera.com/garmin-americas-bluechart-cd-rom-010-10317-00.html
Seems to have the cheapest price.

I think you can look at all regions on the PC, but only  download 1 region to the GPS.  There is a download of the CD available on the net somewhere, and I think it is free.  Do a google on Garmin Bluecharts

  Different machines are designed to work with different chart software.   You need to find the company that makes charts for your machine and find out how they package their charts.  Some of the big companies are C-Map NT, Navionics and Garmin.   

  Over all,  charts are getting cheaper than they used to be.  Memory chips are cheaper, so you can fit more on them than we used to.   Older machines used smaller charts because Memory and the Proprietary maps were so darn expensive.   Nowadays, they'll put the entire country on a thumb nail sized chip.  Charts for Ipods are very cheap.   

  The trick with maps is that you want to be able to update them every couple of years.  On very old systems, this might be prohibitively expensive.

  On a PC you can use SeaClear to view Noaa raster charts.    On a Mac, you can use "Mac ENC"