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 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)

Thanks,

Ryk

Ryk,

I have same problem, except worse - I need reading glasses at home computer
and I can't read my iPaq display - I use the iPaq along with Fugawi as a
chart display - It has a zoom function that helps, but I am still juggling
sunglasses and reading glasses just at the worst moments.

What I am considering and will order tonight, seeing you jogged my memory,
is one of these:

http://www.gpscity.ca/item-ram-mount...er/rammag1.htm

We will see if it helps!

There are larger screen portable - Ultra-Mobiles. Need to wait for price to
come down!

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.... P=rdr0000276

Good Luck!


"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 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)

Thanks,

Ryk

"
"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.

"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.


About 6 or 7 years ago I was watching TV and ran across a show (maybe on
the History Channel ?) that described in part how the Army before the
start of W.W.II was woefully short on qualified candidates for flight
training. One reason for the shortage was due to a large number of
otherwise qualified potential candidates having poor eyesight, so the
Army hired a bunch of opthamologists to train the candidates to regain
good eyesight from refractive errors like myopia and presbyopia. They
showed films from the period where they were using all sorts of strange
machines to retrain the eyes. Some time after seeing that show I read a
description of the eye exercises for retraining refractive errors that
the Army opthamologists gave their candidates. Now I see a number of
*new* training systems for vision improvement for sale like the "See
Clearly Method" and others that base their methods on the original
Army/opthamologist methods, or the Bates method, or a combination of the
two. The Army method has been successful for a lot of people, and the
Bates system has also been successful for a lot of people. Some need
one, others need the other. Still other people may need a combo of the
two to be effective.
Bottom line is, if you are willing to spend the time and effort, you
can get a lot of correction. If though like me most of your refractive
error is from astigmatisms, be prepared to spend some serious work to
correct it. I started using the original Army methods when I first saw
them and stopped cold the progression of worsening, (which up till that
time meant about 1/4 diopter per year worsening on average) and have
since improved one whole diopter. If I had dedicated enough time and
energy to it I believe I would have improved my eyesight a lot more. I
hate wearing glasses so the time I spent working on my eyes has enabled
me to see good enough again to read without them. BTW, if you have
become farsighted, you will get pretty rapid improvement using the Army
methods - that seems to be by far the easiest to correct.
But thanks for reminding me. Passing the CG OUPV test means having
no more than 20/200 uncorrected, so now I'm going to dust off that
document and get back to working on my vision.

Sailaway wrote:

It has just occurred to me that you could have lasiks done on just one
eye. That way you could read with one eye and see distance with the
other. Sailors that we know where she had always worn contacts, she
got that done, and doesn't have to wear glasses at all now.

"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.


About 6 or 7 years ago I was watching TV and ran across a show (maybe on
the History Channel ?) that described in part how the Army before the
start of W.W.II was woefully short on qualified candidates for flight
training. One reason for the shortage was due to a large number of
otherwise qualified potential candidates having poor eyesight, so the
Army hired a bunch of opthamologists to train the candidates to regain
good eyesight from refractive errors like myopia and presbyopia. They
showed films from the period where they were using all sorts of strange
machines to retrain the eyes. Some time after seeing that show I read a
description of the eye exercises for retraining refractive errors that
the Army opthamologists gave their candidates. Now I see a number of
*new* training systems for vision improvement for sale like the "See
Clearly Method" and others that base their methods on the original
Army/opthamologist methods, or the Bates method, or a combination of the
two. The Army method has been successful for a lot of people, and the
Bates system has also been successful for a lot of people. Some need
one, others need the other. Still other people may need a combo of the
two to be effective.
Bottom line is, if you are willing to spend the time and effort, you
can get a lot of correction. If though like me most of your refractive
error is from astigmatisms, be prepared to spend some serious work to
correct it. I started using the original Army methods when I first saw
them and stopped cold the progression of worsening, (which up till that
time meant about 1/4 diopter per year worsening on average) and have
since improved one whole diopter. If I had dedicated enough time and
energy to it I believe I would have improved my eyesight a lot more. I
hate wearing glasses so the time I spent working on my eyes has enabled
me to see good enough again to read without them. BTW, if you have
become farsighted, you will get pretty rapid improvement using the Army
methods - that seems to be by far the easiest to correct.
But thanks for reminding me. Passing the CG OUPV test means having
no more than 20/200 uncorrected, so now I'm going to dust off that
document and get back to working on my vision.

Rosalie B. wrote:
"
"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.

This seems to be the best, (and cheapest) solution. Get yourself a blonde
nympho who has younger eyes than yours (no disrespect to Rosalie!). It may
cost you more than a big screen in the long run, but will last longer, and
keep you looking younger!

On Mon, 14 Aug 2006 19:27:00 -0400, Ryk
wrote:

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)

If you have space and the budget, the Furuno 10.4 inch color screens
are outstanding for both daytime and night time visibility. Next best
are their 7 inch screens.

There is nothing wrong with wearing bifocal glass. It is a natural aging
process. Most LCD are hard to read in direct sun light. Beside
navigational equipment digital cameras are the worst to read in direct sun
light.
In my case I have my eyes examined every two years and I wear bifocal all
the time. On board I have two pair of prescription polarized sun glass made
for distance viewing. These are used most of the time and especially to
have a visual on distant objects on the water. I also have pairs of tinted
prescription bi-focal eyes glass that I use for outside charts and
instrument reading.
For on the water visual with the sun reflecting tinted eye glass are not as
good as polarized. In Canada the polarized bi-focal are just too expensive.
How come I have two pairs of each? As I get new prescription eye glass
every two years I keep the old one as spare. I have been know to sat on my
glass, misplaced them or the grand children to inadvertently throw them
overboard.
Now the navigational instruments manufacturers are coming with anti - glare
LC display and they are much easier to read and to keep a visual on the
screens.

"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 14 Aug 2006 19:27:00 -0400, Ryk
wrote:

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)

If you have space and the budget, the Furuno 10.4 inch color screens
are outstanding for both daytime and night time visibility. Next best
are their 7 inch screens.

Rosalie B. wrote:
"

"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.



My optometrist said the mid-forties was the magic time when many people
start needing reading glasses.If you were near sighted before, you now
need bi-folds or most likely progressive lenses (especially if your job
is in front of a computer)
The good news is... there are some nice looking eyeglasses out there.I
have almost a 'wire rim' style titanium frame.

"Dennis Pogson" wrote

This seems to be the best, (and cheapest) solution. Get yourself a blonde
nympho who has younger eyes than yours (no disrespect to Rosalie!).

If she has good eyes, it might be hard to get her interested