On Sat, 7 May 2005 17:03:10 -0700, "JJ" wrote:

Can anyone suggest a good nautical chart and a GPS unit. I am considering a
Lawrence ifinder H2O or a Garmin 76c although I am open to suggestions. I
need detailed charts for Canadian great lakes. As far as I can see the
Charts for the garmin(Blue charts) only show the east or west coast of
Canada. Nothing for the great lakes. Is this true ?

Thanks

I don't know about Bluecharts, but Navionics covers the Great Lakes in
two XL3 type charts.

http://tinyurl.com/7byr2

As to handheld GPS, I am no fan of Garmin. Others swear by them, I
have had a couple of negative experiences with them - one was a real
dustup which left me with a very negative impression of the company.

I would suggest the Raymarine RC400 GPS chartplotter. I have one and
have both the Hot Maps for my region and the XL3 salt chart for my
area. The charts are very well set up and the RC400 is a great little
unit - very intuitive to operate.

I have played with the Lowrance iFINDER and found it lacking. The
pick up times for satellites were ok, but it tended to loose lock on a
fairly regular basis. I didn't like the screen size and it felt
awkward when using it walking down the street. The screen also looked
washed out in the sun - you could still see it, but it wasn't clear.

Admittedly there is a price difference between the RC400 and the
iFINDER, but you get a lot for the money difference. And by the time
you buy the software, a fixed mount for the GPS (which is mandatory in
a boat - trust me on that), it's only about $150 difference. You are
getting a lot of bang for the buck for that $150.

Good luck.

Later,

Tom