What GPS do you have and should I get it?

Brady,

I bought a Garmin Bluechart product some yrs ago, but found I never used it. Rather, I have always found Garmin Topo maps good for what I do, which is coastal cruising. The one I would buy would be
Garmin MapSource Topo 24K on microSD - Southeast including Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Florida. http://www.thegpsstore.com/Garmin-Topo-24K-microSD-Southeast-P2363.aspx $86.95

These maps are aimed at off-road terrain, but they provide decent maps of coastal FL. The Bluechart maps are oriented more toward power boaters and emphasize access to marinas, etc. I have been criticized by one person on the WaterTribe forum for suggesting the Topo maps over Bluechart maps, still the Topo maps are what I use on the water.

Keith

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2015 AI 2, 2014 Tandem

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex ... It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." A. Einstein

"Less is more" Anon

I've had exactly the same experience as Keith with the equivalent Australian maps - the Topo map is far more useful than the Bluecharts.

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No one else using http://www.openstreetmap.org/?

OK, maps do not include water deepth information (as far as I know), but using the AI I normally can see whether there is shallow water or not; for fishing you might have different requirements.
And if a coastline does not match - correct it, it's like a wiki

Axel,

Please outline the steps you perform to upload "openstreetmap" map data to your Garmin Etrex.

Keith

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2015 AI 2, 2014 Tandem

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex ... It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." A. Einstein

"Less is more" Anon

Keith

Since you saved me some money on the 76CSX I splurged the extra for the Bluechart. Now if I decide to sail from Florida to California I'm covered

-j-

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2010 Tandem Island!

I'll be interested to see your new 76 and the BlueCharts when I get back.

On a recent Big Bend trip, one of our group had a relatively new 76, and I was absolutely amazed that she was able to pull up correct tide charts every day for the specific location we were in. Since my 6-yr-old 76 could not do that, I was quite envious.

Keith

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2015 AI 2, 2014 Tandem

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex ... It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." A. Einstein

"Less is more" Anon

yes, that might come in handly in the Everglades - I was reading that one has to time landings at some of the campsites to avoid a slog through the muck. Also, it'll be nice to know how deep things are so I won't have to paddle out of any sea-grass beds like I had to last week!

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2010 Tandem Island!

Ha, just got an email that they shipped it - it'll be here Friday in time for the weekend!

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2010 Tandem Island!

I've found Bluecharts of limited use for avoiding sea-grass beds. I sail a lot in estuaries and while the depth contours in Bluecharts show where you might encounter sea-grass, they are not accurate enough to show exactly where you will encounter it.
I've found a useful approach is to look at an area in Google Earth, where the sea-grass beds are clearly visible, then to outline the area with waypoints, then load those waypoints into the Garmin, then draw a route joining the points in the Garmin. This creates an accurate outline of the sea-grass areas which is visible on the Garmin.

PS: Get yourself a copy of GPSBabel. It's free and invaluable for tasks like transposing data between Google and Garmin formats.

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A description can be found here: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OSM_Map_On_Garmin
Helpful also to work with the map using Garmins MapSource Program: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OSM_Map_On_MapSource
Overview about OpenStreetMap project: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Main_Page
Entering Garmin GPS in the search box guides you to maybe also helpful information: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Garmin/GPS_series


I agree, you just have to respect that Google Earth data might not be very actual (sometimes a few years old, e.g. harbour of Formentera) ...

Regards
Axel

Yeah, the Google Earth photos of my area are about 4 years old, but they still seem to give more accurate data than Bluecharts.

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Keith, my earlier statement confused you because we are using different terms. I use "heading" to mean "which way the bow is pointed" and "course" to mean "actual track over the ground." I usually use bearing in reference to neither of those things, but to mean the number of degrees from the bow "heading" to the referenced object. For example, on a crossing to Bimini I might steer a heading of Southeast, resulting in a course over ground of East, and the island will appear bearing about 45 degrees to port off the bow.

One of the things I dislike about the Garmin Oregon is that it uses those terms differently, and except when stationary it substitutes "course" for "heading" (the direction the unit is pointed, not necessarily the bow in the case of a handheld). They should have left the compass off the darn thing, IMO.

I have seen this before.
Much of the street information is absolutely incorrect and in many cases simply absent, what is more the local region names are incorrect.

I find this site to be very unreliable.

Thanks for the clarification, Tom.

And, Anakritis, thanks for your input. I looked at the openstreetmap site. Uploading maps, even if they were good, according to that site is the sort of chore I no longer enjoy. As much as I hate to pay for Garmin maps, that is the way I will go. I have not bought a Garmin map for several years--that is the good part. But, if I buy a new GPS (like a 76), I'll probably be forced to buy at least one new Garmin Topo.

Keith

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2015 AI 2, 2014 Tandem

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex ... It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." A. Einstein

"Less is more" Anon

Ok, so I'm confused. Got my 76csx, but if I find some coordinates on GoogleEarth and plug them in as a waypoint, they don't show up in the correct place when I look at them on the "Trip and waypoint manager nor in the GPS". How could that be???

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2010 Tandem Island!