SO....
After a trip through the marsh in terrain I was unfamiliar with, I decided to get out the GPS. I had used a screen shot of the satellite pic to navigate and wondered if the hand-held would be any better. For one, the phone was hard to see in the bright sunlight. For two, it WASN'T a map and was labeled improperly. And for three the GPS is smaller. And so I set a waypoint at the marina and will check the utility of it in an upcoming adventure.
I really don't like the functions of the little contraption. It works much like a TV remote and that's frustrating enough. It was originally intended to find geocaches, and is geared to that somewhat. I loaded a map of the coastal areas locally a LONG time ago. And never used it. Previously I KNEW where I was and now I am moving through unfamiliar territory. So we'll see...
I'll still have my back-up sat shot on the phone.
I print sat images on normal size paper, varying zoom, put them in plastic sleeves in a 3 ring notebook.
The distance scale is written on each page. One page is the entire region to be visited, and will have numbers in the center matching the center of the detail pages to help orient them.
I didn't like the last sat shot so I'll redo it. It's no big deal now that I do have some bearings to go by. I just got a new phone after losing the last one and THAT is a big problem.It was time as the old phone had gotten cranky and refused to ring. So far the new one has been unwilling to connect to my home net. And talk about TRASH...I deleted until I was blue in the face. Maybe I deleted something it needs?
Anyway, the GPS is ready with new batteries and I'm sitting on ready. It was pretty chilly this morning and windy. Maybe a bit much for a solo old guy, so I diverted to prepping the house to paint. It's always something.
I forgot the GPS on the last trip. Daggumit! And I was interested in numbers! Oh well, I can still navigate and usually know where I am. (Relatively).
I use OpenCPN to access Navigation Maps, and can print screen shots from it. I-Boating fills in a lot of small lakes.
I had a chance to try OpenCPN and a GPS puck on a tablet PC a few years ago. With a homemade map (through another computer program) of the local lake and surrounding roads, I was able to drive to the far end of the lake and the map reported me on the road but in the other lane. Pretty good for a map that covered 6 miles. I got my Garmin GPS/fish finder to talk to the tablet as well but it ends up being a mess of wires as neither the transducer nor tablet are permanently mounted to the boat. Position and depth would be awesome in unfamiliar waters. Typically I am in familiar waters with a paper chart backup. I also have a Ritchie compass on the big boat with illumination hooked to the nav light circuit and binoc's with a backlit compass that could go with any boat, provided I remember to pack them.
I could use a depth finder for sure. That would cause electrons to flow and S R Cat isn't so equipped. So for all these years I've relied on her minimal draft to keep me out of trouble. Still, way back when I had the old Hummingbird on the skiff, it tells you things about the bottom that are very useful. Maybe an upgrade in the future? We'll see. Santa might be convinced ;D