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?
No judgements, and I'm sure some will get on a high horse after lying
about it. Just curious.


My GPS is a very early handheld mapping unit (GPSMap 175) which
provides limited charting info, assuming I have the chart chip. I
always have a paper chart on deck and consider that my primary tool.

I'm thinking about getting the new small Garmin that has NEXRAD
updates and can also be used in a car, but the screen is still pretty
small so I doubt it will replace paper charts. BTW, my boat is wired
for computer charting, and I have software and charts, but I never
felt comfortable relying on it. A close friend, who is a
traditionalist in many other ways, has his autopilot driven by the
computer.

I hardly ever use a handbearing compass nowadays, but I used to use it
a lot before GPS. I do use soundings frequently to double check
positions. Also, when I travel outside of home waters, I often have
dividers and sometimes parallel rules on deck.

As for Notice to Mariners, I subscribe to the local edition and read
it weekly, though I don't update charts.

In article , Jeff wrote:
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?
No judgements, and I'm sure some will get on a high horse after lying
about it. Just curious.


My GPS is a very early handheld mapping unit (GPSMap 175) which
provides limited charting info, assuming I have the chart chip. I
always have a paper chart on deck and consider that my primary tool.

I'm thinking about getting the new small Garmin that has NEXRAD
updates and can also be used in a car, but the screen is still pretty
small so I doubt it will replace paper charts. BTW, my boat is wired
for computer charting, and I have software and charts, but I never
felt comfortable relying on it. A close friend, who is a
traditionalist in many other ways, has his autopilot driven by the
computer.

I hardly ever use a handbearing compass nowadays, but I used to use it
a lot before GPS. I do use soundings frequently to double check
positions. Also, when I travel outside of home waters, I often have
dividers and sometimes parallel rules on deck.

As for Notice to Mariners, I subscribe to the local edition and read
it weekly, though I don't update charts.

Do you get your via their email service? It's nice... I just print the
sections that apply to where I'm going, then I update the paper chart
in pencil the night before. When something changes, I make the change
or erase the notation as necessary.


--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

My GPS is a very early handheld mapping unit (GPSMap 175)


Jeff, have a look at the new Garmin GPS 192c. It comes fully loaded
with all US Charts. I ordered one for the 35s5. It's quite a good value
and has a great screen.

RB

garmin has some great units...

"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.