[Alberg30] Onboard Electronic Charting

[Brian and Elaine Timmins]

Has anyone set up an onboard Charting Program that you actually use while sailing?
I'm talking about the type that runs on a computer and displays charts and your boat location (from GPS input) in real time. The type where the charts resemble actual paper charts.
If so, how and where do you have the computer mounted? Can you work the program from the cockpit or do you have to go below to work or even see it? If it's viewable or workable from the cockpit, is it anywhere near safe from spray or rain? What program are you using and what do you think of it?
I have a friend with a sport fisherman who has a laptop set up on his lower bridge. He is running a lite version of The CAPN (captain) program and I was fairly impressed with the way he was able to follow bottom contours while fishing.
At the Atlantic City Show, I finally got a chance to play with a Garmin 180 Chartplotter with a chip in it. I was disappointed with the appearance of the "Chart". I use quotations in this case since it doesn't even come close to resembling a real chart. Maybe, if the screen was bigger, it would look better.
I have always been a seat of the pants sailor, so I'm not sure why this topic intrigues me so much. It seems like a big investment to know that the shore is to port when I'm sailing to Block Island.
On my return trip from Hopetown, Abaco, Bahamas to Beaufort North Carolina, many years ago, I used a sextant and a quartz wristwatch. All was going well for two days but then all of a sudden, my fix was in the middle of Kentucky! I just kept heading Northwest until I spotted the coast, and then followed the coast until I found some buoys to locate myself. It worked, and I was fairly close to Beaufort at landfall. Now, (with SA off) my GPS tells me where I am within a few feet and I now sort of want it to show me pictures too. 
Progress or older age? I wonder.

Thanks for any related input
Brian                  Free Spirit           A30  #497
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