Cruising speed?

gps
With the gps you are messuring speed over the bottom, the unit is not taking into the account for current. I use mine more for distance than calculate what my average speed was.

60 times the disatane divided by your time over your course will give your speed in knots.

If you want more accurate speed use a speed mate. Greg

Agree 100% with gbyrd
I use GPS for distance over bottom and use a Speedmate for workouts. I have found that my average speed, although it may be somewhat accurate, really doesn’t mean much to me. I have found that I really dig in going against a 3 MPH current for say a half to an hour and a half and tend to slack off going back with the current since the shoreline is going by so fast. Just a mental thing and I know that I’m slacking. Also, in a chop, I struggle against the waves but on the return can get the boat up to surf the waves for quite a long time.

I always paddle downhill
toward the horizion so I go faster