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"Ryk" wrote in message
.. .

I've got a Garmin GPS76 at the helm that provides all the
functionality I really need, backed up with a direct connection to the
PC running Fugawi at the nav station.

Unfortunately, I no longer have teenaged eyes and the combination of
small size, lack of contrast, rain, darkness, etc. can make it hard to
read at the most important moments. I'm at the point where I can still
read the phone book, but only in good light and probably getting a
little worse. I wear 1.75 dime store glasses to read in bed and
nothing at the computer screen.

I'm way past you in that I have been wearing bifocals since I was in
my mid 40s. My oldest daughter (now 45) is having to wear reading
glasses. My husband who is almost 70 just wears reading glasses. His
problem with them is losing the glasses and case out of his pocket
into the water. Now he has buttoned or zipped pockets to put them in.

I have not heard that he had any problem reading the computer screen
(which is a regular laptop, but we are running Cap'n) at the helm,
although he makes me zoom in somewhat more than I would do if it were
up to me. He can't read the GPS through his sunglasses anyway
because they are polarized.

Basically his solution is to leave the reading to me. I do the
charting and waypoints and radio work and all that stuff. I read the
GPS and record what it says.

I put those scrunchy things (can't remember what they are called) on
the legs of my glasses so they don't blow off my face and into the
water. I've done that ever since someone on the dock threw me a rope
(which I didn't need thrown) and it hit me on the nose and knocked my
prescription glasses into Nassau harbour. After I screamed at Bob
that we weren't leaving after all and got my backup glasses and the
current died down a bit, we retrieved them with the pool net. The
water was clear and the glasses had lenses that darkened in bright
light, so we could see where they were.

I'm sure there are others on this route. I would like to hear from
anybody else with 50ish eyes who has moved on to a better display. How
much is enough? Should I just bite the bullet and buy a big screen? Or
should I keep a pair of half glasses at the helm? (which might not
help the rain issue)

We have an enclosed cockpit, and have all the lines led back there so
all the sail handling can be done without going on deck, unless we are
anchoring or coming into a dock or something. In that case, we are
just trying to avoid bumping into large objects that Bob can see
without reading glasses. If anchoring, I'm driving and he's directing
from the bow.