How many use GPS systems?

My Garmin MAp76 is usually
carried in my day hatch as back-up to my compass. Only use it when necessary to report position or when doing a crossing.



It’s a great emergency tool, but I prefer to use ded reckoning with a compass.

Have one (E-Trex Legend Color) and
use it a lot. I do not use it to navigate with, more of a marking tool for campsites. It also is an excellent aid to gage where you are on a river. Other than bridges, it is difficult to keep up with where you are and how much farther to the next point. The GPS definitely makes this easier. I have also found that in an emergency, being able to scale out and get a bigger perspective and find the closest road is a nice feature. I keep mine on my deck and it has been splashed and rained on with no problems. I will probably start keeping it in some sort of dry bag to prolong its life. NO sense tempting fate. I highly recommend the use of a GPS unit. But I still do plenty of leg work and scouting and carry real maps and a compass.

Garmin 60C GPS
I use a 60C on my paddles. One nice thing about some of the better Garmin units is you can purchase “topo” products. I have Garmins “mapsource united states topo” which I can download topo maps of the areas i will be paddling. These show much more detail of the areas than a standard GPS that comes with standard streets & hiways already loaded into them. You can also get more detailed “topo” software from them “us topo 24K” which has all the national parks (east, central & west @ $100 each). They cover such paddling areas as the apostle islands, boundary water canoe area, etc. I wouldnt be without it.

GPS12
I bought aGPS 12 from a freind for $50. I use it wheb=never I go on the water. I river fish from my kayakk, so I mark many good looking spots for future reference. Also mark the position of deep holes, rock bars, reefs, etc…

A good deal…
I just picked up my mail and there was a sale flyer from West Marine.

Right now they have the Garmin Map-76 for $199



cheers,

JackL

Dashboard
Garmin Foretrex 201 - Nothing fancy to the display but it tells you the info that’s handy, heading, waypoints, breadcrumbs but the best is simply the speedometer/odometer functions. Let’s you know precisely the answer to that question “How far did we go?” and of course “How fast are we going?” Course, it also allows you to see the influence of the tide for and against you. Good training tool and only about $185.



See you on the water,

Marshall

www.the-river-connection.com

I have the 60 also
Won’t leave home without it. Auto routes to anywhere on the maps loaded with ETA and all. Great on the water, I generaly know where I am but MPH, stopped and moving times, that’s great info.



JT in Central FL

Being old school

– Last Updated: Jul-13-06 11:15 PM EST –

I never had the need or occasion to use one. I very seldom paddle or camp outside of Florida, never saw a reason for it when its flora and fauna can sustain me. I occassionally will use a chart, map, and/or a compass but only in the the Everyglades' Wilderness Waterway and even then only once or twice on the entire trip. and never when I canoe out in the Gulf of Mexico.
My father taught me at an early age how to read the signs of nature as to my location, where I'm going and where I've been.
He would take me fishing in the gulf at night in his home-built 20 ft. wood boat (very little light pollution back then) without a compass. He'd get drunk while I fished except if there was a big one on the line. That seemed to snap him out of his stupor. He would then crank up the outboard and putter around for about a half hour and fish some more. I would have no idea where we were and that used to scare the hell out of me (I wasn't but six when we would do this)but we always caught fish, outran every storm (he could feel them many miles away, (scared me even worse!)), and make it back to Tarpon Springs up the same channel we departed after midnight, in at least an hour and a half before sunrise. Eventually my curiosity (at about ten) was eating me up so I got a lot of first hand training, a good six years worth. In spite of myself I still remember I few things he tried to teach me. I still can't do it as well as he could. and I'll still carry a watch and that day or night's tide table with me to help me out (he would consider it cheating).
I have to give him his due, he never drank to access when he was teaching me anything pertaining to getting my own sustainence in the wilds.
Its not magic, just something he learned from an old polynesian sailor during WW2 and taught some of it to me. Having a sensitive or injured back, which my father had and I still do, helps. Another is reading wave patterns and currents. Birds, fish and marine mammals offer another clue.
On a clear night using the moon and/or stars is the easiest.
Technology's cool but batteries tend to die at the worst of times and so many things can render it useless.
I have to agree with Darth Vader on this point: Don't be too proud of this technological (marvel) you've constructed...(it) is insignificant next to the power of the Force.
()= my words
BTW... Isn't the purpose of paddling is to remove oneself from the trappings of technology and to prove to one's self how to be as one with nature? Just asking...

I use a Magellan Marine
and just like my VHF radio I keep it in a water proof bag. I have never had either fail, I would never chance having either one fail because a seal dried out or a small crack and it was no longer water proof.

NIce to know where you are

– Last Updated: Jul-17-06 3:21 PM EST –

when it's foggy and you better not miss the island.

Yes it would be great to have the skills to navigate confidently in pea soup fog with a decent current in play and I am working on that.

OTOH the GPS enhances my margin of safety,

Always on ocean

– Last Updated: Jul-13-06 1:31 PM EST –

We paddle in Maine on vacation each summer, and yeah we try to stay aware of our heading and always catch a heading off the compass when we see fog tendrils out there... but there is nothing like a GPS with a spare set of batteries to comfort you visually that you aren't heading to Portugal. (As long as you have downloaded the right charts to the thing.)

Above responses raise a good point though - you should always, always have paper charts with you for unfamiliar water or major tripping regardless of how snazzy your electronics are.

Maine is admittedly more extreme than a lot of places when it comes to fog - if you see a tendril of fog on a point a couple of miles out you often don't have more than 25 minutes before visibility has been reduced to tens of feet. So it is very easy to get caught by the fog well before you can make it within sight of land. If we paddled on the ocean where this wasn't as big a problem, we might love our GPS a bit less.

One point to consider - the biggest diff between Magellan and Garmin is how thay handle charts. Garmin has a lot more available with details for inland bodies of water, maybe on land stuff as well but we don't worry about that, but has some annoying system where they nickel and dime you to download charts from their site. Our friend has one and has already spent more money on this than we have on the related Magellan software, where you don't get great detail on other than Champlain, Great Lakes and the coast but you get all of North America once and can up and download off the CD all you want w/o paying more.

GPS units are also good for someone trying to improve their paddling pace, though I have often thought that the wrist watch sized ones were maybe better for that because they'd be easier to spot check.

It’s not even the sun

– Last Updated: Jul-17-06 2:00 PM EST –

I have an eTrex Vista which has not seen much direct sunlight or extreme adverse conditions at all. It's rated to 1 meter for 30 minutes. Mine took an accidental swim yesterday and was in no more than 1 foot of water for a 20 seconds or so, well below what it's rated for. When I took a look at it, it was half filled with seawater.

I took it apart. There's a primary and secondary seal. The primary seal looks to be a piece of clear vinyl with adhesive on one side. The unit comes apart in two halves with semicircle cut outs on each half for the buttons. The primary seal goes all the way around the unit covering the buttons and seams (the vinyl has enough pliability that the buttons can still be operated). The secondary seal is a custom cut piece of what I think is a plastic (not as pliable or stretchy as the primary seal, it's also thinner). There is adhesive on both sides with cut outs for the buttons. The rubber molding goes on top of this. The Vista has a barometric pressure sensor for altitude. There's a hole on the bottom of the case for for air to pass. On the other side there is a piece of what looks to be porous fabric (I didn't really investigate this too closely). I suspect that's the primary point of entry. Another point of entry is the battery compartment, more specifically the latch for the battery cover. The only thing protecting it from water getting into the unit on the other side is a piece of tape and if that tape isn't evenly applied (as was the case with my unit) water can get in there as well.

Anyhow... you can bring these units back to life even if exposed to salt water. I took mine apart, removed the the LCD, daughter card, and main board. I washed each board first with fresh water, then with tuner cleaner (using a toothbrush) and finally finishing with good 'ol soap and water (also with a tooth brush). I blotted the boards dry with a paper towel and then used a hair dryer on high fan, low heat to dry it out (since I wasn't using pure distilled water I didn't want the tap to evaporate slowly). If I really wanted to a do a thorough job I'd have wrapped each board in paper towels and then burried them in a bucket of silica gel for a few days but I'm impatient (actually the use of the hair dryer is somewhat questionable but I wasn't expecting much anyhow).

After all that it works again. I just have to figure out how to reseal the unit.

A dry bag is not a bad idea but relying on any piece of technology to save your life is a very bad idea (I don't think anyone here is even remotely advocating that though). I use my GPS as a speedometer and odometer (and when skiing as an altimeter to see how many vertical feet I've done).

Cheers, Joe

sorta?
You sorta fixed it in the oven?? LOL. Would love to see before/after photos!

Magellan
Yes I always use one. I like the Magellan Sportrac Pro. Remember that the battery compartments on Magellans are waterproof. On Garmins it is not.

If you get into trouble on the ocean and you call for help the first thing the Coast Guard will ask you for is your coordinates. Have something to give them. I have heard this question asked many times of boaters who need help in the Atlantic City area. They can triangulate your position off your FM signal but it takes longer and is not as accurate.



Vinny

Nope - - Not to likely to either
Haven’t found a need for it yet.



I live and work in a digital world. I bought a kayak so I could get away from it. Alas- I’m not having much luck at it lately.

Both
I use a etrek GPS to mark fishing spots, and have a cheap small compass tied off to my PFD.



Never know what’s going to happen

has anyone used one
on tight/more secluded rivers such as the Upper Yough, or the Big Sandy? I saw that Garmin has come out with their “X” line that is supposed to work well under dense foliage and in deep gorges. Just wondering how much better they’ll be that the “regular” models?



Bryan

Beautifully said, Gulfcoaster
Dogmaticus

It takes 10 minutes to write the …
coordinates down on your chart for all significant points along your course. It takes no time at all to mark off where you have been as you go.



As cool as GPS is I can’t help but feel for many people it is an excuse for not knowing how to navigate.



Augustus Dogmaticus

MMVI

Garmin GPSs are waterproof
> … the battery compartments on Magellans are waterproof.

On Garmins it is not.



The Garmin Map76 and 60 families (and probably others) are advertized as waterproof to the IPX7 standard, including the battery compartment. The compartment is closed with a very positive half-turn on a flip-up wire handle.



And it appears to be true. My 76CS often sits on my foredeck and gets plenty wet, so far without ill effects. I believe it’s been in the water occasionally too – and thanks to the tether for saving it, despite the fact that it floats.



–David