Face the wind and smile!
I continue to be amazed at the technical expertise of many forum contributors and very much appreciate them sharing their knowledge with us. My technical expertise is best described by HW Tilman as a “hard hitting mechanic”.
For cruising I still want a chart plotter to tell me where I am, where I should not go and how deep the water is. But backed up and by waterproof charts big enough for me to orientate myself and make sensible course setting decisions and identify coastal features a mile or more away. Shamelessly cut-and-pasting from an earlier post my personal quest remains to find a chartplotter for use in open boats that is:
a) Truly waterproof - can operate after being dunked in water, not just splash-proof.
b) Easy to operate with wet cold fingers in gloves by a wet, cold, tired eejit .
c) Bright and clear enough to read in strong sunshine.
d) Displayed big and clear enough to read with misted-up glasses.
e) Robust (including cable terminations)
f) Equipped with an operating system to use with Android or Apple Apps
g) Self contained with 8 hour minimum battery life and re-chargeable.
iPads and smart phones in plastic cases meet some of these criteria but fail on b) - easy to use with wet fingers by an eejit and c) clear in bright sunlight. These are more important than long internal battery life.
Aside from £800-ish for marine chart-plotters - that mostly fail g) - does anyone have recommendation that does not require a 100GByte techno-ninja to set up and use?
Incidentally, a well known Sailing Master who sometimes contributes punishing posts to this forum, helms, encased in balaclava, dark glasses, drysuit and thick gloves that would cut most mortals off from any sensory perception of their environment. I’ve sailed with him and we didn’t even have tell tales on the shrouds, let alone “Tacktick”, or whatever, electronics. His race record speaks for itself.
Face the wind and smile!
Matthew