"Capt. Rob" wrote
How many of you rely on your GPS without consulting charts these days?
How many of you back that up by using a handheld compass?....

I do. I use charts to plan cuz it's easier for me. Then I use a PC to plot
courses which I load into my cockpit GPS, which then provides a continuous
display of current position relative to plan, hazards, depth, et al and
automatically scrolls. Makes "driving" the boat a snap. The boat has a
compass that I steer by (tacks may criss-cross the planned course shown on
the GPS). I keep a laptop connected to a separate GPS in the cabin for
backup and a bigger picture than the GPS screen provides plus charts on the
Nav desk to note interesting data for future use, but I do not maintain
current track on charts. My health limits us to day sails, and not even
that lately - were we taking longer trips I'd update the charts every few
hours just for drill. I've checked GPS position against charted position of
bouys, et cetera, and found it always within a few yards - mucho better than
I can do using a compass to triangulate position but y'all good sailors
prolly have better results than I.