minas man
Member
I have been very busy this spring and that has kept me off the water even though I am only 15 minutes from the house to being out on the water if the tides, winds and weather are favorable.
For the second sail of the season I brought along a Garmin etrex GPS that I bought this winter.
I really have not had time to learn about all its features but all I did was turn it on and attached it via lanyard to the deck behind the splash guard. When I finished my sail I turned it off.
Once home one of my sons got a map program for it and uploaded the data stored from my trip on to my laptop.
The data that it stored was amazing giving separate info for every heading that I took which numbered about 362 headings. This info was length of heading, compass course of heading, time of heading, distance traveled on that heading, speed of heading and even more. All this info comes in the form of graphs, tables and maps. Quite amazing for such a small unit. The screen is so small that it is impossible for my 50 year old eyes to read without glasses and I opt for just my shades when sailing.
The main reason for bringing it was wanting to know how fast I was going. The speed was set in km per hour as I am in Canada so my top speed was 18 km which is about 10 knots or 11 mph.
I was up on a plane and hiking out at 18 km and having a good old face wash with the salty spray.
I am sailing in tidal river currents so I have other factors effecting the hull speed. Once home it was fun to see all the data and view a map that showed my full one hour and 34 minute sail with an average speed of 9km and a distance traveled of about 15 km or 9 miles.
Kind of nice that the GPS did not distract me while sailing but now I have a log so I can re-live the days sail.
Anyone else using a GPS? If so what are your settings.
Thanks for taking the time.
Minas Man
For the second sail of the season I brought along a Garmin etrex GPS that I bought this winter.
I really have not had time to learn about all its features but all I did was turn it on and attached it via lanyard to the deck behind the splash guard. When I finished my sail I turned it off.
Once home one of my sons got a map program for it and uploaded the data stored from my trip on to my laptop.
The data that it stored was amazing giving separate info for every heading that I took which numbered about 362 headings. This info was length of heading, compass course of heading, time of heading, distance traveled on that heading, speed of heading and even more. All this info comes in the form of graphs, tables and maps. Quite amazing for such a small unit. The screen is so small that it is impossible for my 50 year old eyes to read without glasses and I opt for just my shades when sailing.
The main reason for bringing it was wanting to know how fast I was going. The speed was set in km per hour as I am in Canada so my top speed was 18 km which is about 10 knots or 11 mph.
I was up on a plane and hiking out at 18 km and having a good old face wash with the salty spray.
I am sailing in tidal river currents so I have other factors effecting the hull speed. Once home it was fun to see all the data and view a map that showed my full one hour and 34 minute sail with an average speed of 9km and a distance traveled of about 15 km or 9 miles.
Kind of nice that the GPS did not distract me while sailing but now I have a log so I can re-live the days sail.
Anyone else using a GPS? If so what are your settings.
Thanks for taking the time.
Minas Man
