I recently removed a Sitex 767c from my small sailing boat with the
intention of putting it into long-term storage. I typically run one of 3 GPS
units which have met my needs in varied situations. They all feed a laptop,
send 0183 data to the radar display, the autopilot, etc., via various
switching methods. They all run on the ship's mains, and 2 of the 3 run on
batteries also. My cruising area has at various times covered the area from
the Maritimes to the northern Caribbean and that's likely to remain the
case. I have read that the US is considering eliminating funding for LORAN
despite the recent buzz about eLORAN and other innovations and this factored
into my removal decision.

I am currently investigating a potential cruise along the southern coast of
Newfoundland and it has been pointed out to me by experienced visitors there
that the charts in many cases do not correspond to the coordinates supplied
by GPS (independent of datum and the fact that I have the latest charts
corrected to the most recent Canadian Notices). In some cases the charts
differ from GPS readings by a mile or so according to some reports. For a
person like me who really enjoys the convenience of GPS-supplied piloting
information, this adds an additional but certainly not insurmountable
complication. It just means something more to think about and attend to.

While I was thinking about this I was recalling the old tricks we used to
use in the Bahamas prior to GPS and some of the very good privately
published charts such as the Explorer series and Steve Pavlidis' material.
We would simply use the offset feature of the LORAN to get a relatively good
position, and we would update the corrections as often as possible while in
harbor to give the best rendering of LORAN data on the chart. None of my GPS
units has a provision for entering an offset or correction. In fact I am not
certain this feature is available in any GPS unit, although it may be.

However this feature is certainly still available with my trusty Sitex 767c,
and from what I have read the LORAN chains available on the south coast of
Newfoundland are reasonably good. So here I sit wondering if I should bother
re-fitting the Sitex (which really only means plugging in a few cables and
the antenna into the existing coupler). I would then have the option of
using the corrected LORAN when the GPS gives unsatisfactory information.

Has anyone tried this in a similar situation (i.e., specifically where the
GPS does not correspond to the latest charts)? Is this a good idea in the
first place?

--
Good luck and good sailing.
s/v Kerry Deare of Barnegat
http://home.comcast.net/~kerrydeare