"Bruce in bangkok" wrote in message
...

Skip,

I wonder whether you have given any consideration to what happens if
you are at sea and your gps system dies. Perhaps a small gps that
reads lat. and Lon. and a large scale chart might be a useful thing to
have if all else fails.
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Cheers,

Bruce in Bangkok

Hi,

We have a handheld Garmin eTrex Venture with a serial cord, and the
ubiquitous usb (prolific usb-to-serial) puck and both work on the computer(s
in the case of the puck - the laptop doesn't have any serial ports).

We always use paper charts as well as electronic (in whatever form) and
could easily (well, tediously easy) mark our locations as we went. Indeed,
that's what we did when we bought the boat in FTL and moved it to St.
Petersburg, around Key West, with an ancient Garmin 75.

So, we're set up for that. Today, as long as I have to cut them anyway, I'm
going to remake the connections on the current RS125, JUST in case there's
an issue there. That it doesn't talk to our downstairs computer serial AS
WELL AS our chartplotter suggests that it's the sensor; failure to acquire,
then acquistion and sudden comms followed by failure, and another acquistion
without comms amplifies the deduction.

Indeed, in my reading (beyond the RM recommendation) I found that these (and
the sister 120s) units seem to be failing at a great rate. Since there are
many who used them in non-RM applications (so SeaTalk wasn't of use), as RM
didn't want to make a replacement, they've referred folks off to where I got
mine (well, to the unit, not the vendor - but, FYI, it's Bethel Marine, in
FL, with great prices and a great attitude to boot) - which I think is very
good customer service. Best, it's about half or less than the RS125,
wherever you can find NOS, and way less than I paid in an open-box eBay
purchase several years ago.

Thanks for the concern.

L8R

Skip

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