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Do you guys use the routes and tracks stuff on your chartplotters? And, how often?
I find I use the "Tracks" all the time. My unit allows me to turn a track into a saved route, it automatically creates the needed waypoints...... But, I've never used that feature and realized it was there the other day. I very often use the tracks, I clear the track everything at the start of trip, and then, on the wya home, can just follow my track I took on the way out. Helpfull at night.
Here's the deal...I mostly use waypoints to get there and back. Often I will have them in a route. The problem with tracks is that they show the whole trip, round and round, up and down...etc. To get home I would not care to duplicate the exact trip. I do hoever use the track as a back-up, which I've never needed. The MapGPS's kind of takes away the need for a track. It is also used to replicate a given successful trolling pattern. I know a lot of the guys in Florida use the track feature in the Mangroves. It ends up a personal preference. Radar is also important. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]
I just don't find the routes helpful...maybe it's just me??
Another thing, when your following a route, if you use the road type display (forget what you call it? looks like a moving road in front of you like a video game, it says "steer port" "steer stbd"....). If find that useless too!! Does anybody use that thing?
To get into the Gulf I have to go thru San Luis Pass, west end of Galveston. It is very shallow and every year the cuts change. In the spring I'll take my pontoon boat to the pass and find the cut and "track" it on my GPS. When I come back with the bigger boats I pull it down to 1/10th mile and follow the dotted line. I can stay up on plane and not worry about running aground.
Plot trail turned into a route is a great navigational tool.
The short cut channel from OI Fishing Center to the Bridge and out offshore and the Hatteras Inlet is so dangerous. OI Short-Cut poorly marked and next to impossible follow at nite. In and out from the bridge is bad too. Having that trail is so helpful (Shame I accidently erased it, will have to follow or run at light next time to record it again)
Birdman,
I use the road anytime I'm running and don't care if there is anyting under me to fish for. If I known I'm just going to run the whole way, either home or to my start fishing point, it saves a few mins on a 1/2-1 hour long run. This is because if you get a few feet off course it'll tell you and you end up with less zig zaging. If I'm running out or in looking for spots of opertunity, then I use the map screen with the line drawln on it to the next waypoint, and if something pops up on the FF that looks promising, or the fast trool line goes off... I try there for awhile. I started going off shore with this technoligy, so if you used the other stuff you'd incorporate some of the old and new...(probably better if you don't have a back up chartplotting GPS) I also use the tracks from the last trip, if I'm going to the same place as last trip, so I can fish the same productive tracts and directions. Works well sometimes, and if not I'll try from the opisite direction and that usually gets me a good chance to find fish were I did last time.
Hoo-King "em,
Scott
Routes are very useful especially at night or first time navigating to a location. I plot out the route on the home computer first and then transfer the waypoints to the GPS
I haven't used them yet, but I have several routes stored to and from some of my favorite spots, just in case.
Just in case the fog rolls in unexpectedly when I'm a long way from home, for example. I can still just follow the GPS chart or create a new route while I'm out there, but by having a route stored already means there's one less thing for me to do when conditions get snotty. Since the GPS and radar interface by NMEA, activating a route and/or waypoint on the GPS also displays it on the radar. The track feature is not transmitted to the radar.
Shoot me your E-Mail address and I'll E-Mail you back the saved track for "The Crack", which is what the shortcut from the fishing center to the bridge is often called. I saved it anew a couple of weeks ago and have it saved as a file as well - no problem to send it to you.
Thom
"I command thee, O fish of the ocean, rise to my bait"
Fuzzy,
WOW!! I forgot I could do that, (display the route on the radar screen), thanks for reminding me, I have to try that.
Kmaaker,
You use the "road thingy" (anyone know what it is called?) almost all the time? What unit are you using? My Raymarine unit doesn't seem to work very good in that mode (or, I am not using it right?). Because you say: "I tells me when few feet off the route...". The problem I've had when I use that mode is that it seems to have WAY to much of a delay. In other words, it says "Steer Port", so I do, and 30 seconds later it still says "Steer port". Meanwhile If've turned 45% and can obviouysly see I'm now WAY off coarse in the opposite direction. Then, all of a sudden, it says, "STEER STBD". Cause it finally figured out I over steered.
Is there a "delay" setting or distance off course setting? Maybee that is set to high on mine??
Birdman, I have the garmin 238, and had the 185 on last boat. It's just called the roadway on the garmins [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img] . Mine doesn't say where to steer, but has the arrow... On the 185 it took a few seconds for the correction to show, so I'd steer in a little then wait to see if it was enough to be back dead on, sounds like yours is even slower. With the 238, it updates a lot faster so I don't have to wait. I started with the 185 so I learned how to use the road, because it was so easy to find my way to a new spot with it, and had nothing to compair it to, so it was a good tool for me (last boat had mech steering and vered right if I let go of the wheel at all). Now I use it to make sure I don't stray too close to the Cape Lookout shoales on the run home,outside the road on right side... too close. If yours is telling you to zig zag back and forth then it would not be saving you anytime on the long runs. Not sure if there is a setting you can change. Both of the units 185, and 238 will tell me to correct for just a few feet, or a deg off course so I save in distance ran in the long run, but it can get anoying in rough seas trying to correct every 5 secs because the nose gets pushed around so much. (not worth the effort then 'cuase a few feet less on a rough run doesn't mean squat!)
Hoo-King 'em,
Scott
I think Thom is right on the highway... And if I didn't start out using it, I most likely would never have used it. I just learned how and now have the habit of using it... Always had trouble remembering which way the nose would go on the screen when I turned port and stbd....
Hoo-King 'em,
Scott
I use the highway thingy on my Raymarine quite often. It comes in especially handy at night, or when you turn the helm over to someone else for a minute while you rig/derig a rod, take a piss, or perform some other task that you don't trust anyone else on the boat to do.
When I use it though, I only use it for one leg at a time (e.g., "Go To Cursor"), and when the end of the leg is near, the alarm goes off. At this point in time, my 13 year old son, loves to drive the boat, and knows enough to make small corrections at the helm to keep the circle-X on or near the heading line. An adult is still watching him, but he gets the joy of driving the boat down the highway thingy. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]
Birdman, the corrections must be small because it takes 100m or so for the GPS to update the track and repaint the circle-x on the highway display.
forget the highway,use the chart with windows on,it will take you to any given goto point,if you look at the #'s while underway you can see the hiway is not accurate,at nite,the track is the key if you have a direct saved route,for point a to point b.try the goto with windows on,you know instantly if you are off course.
you know, now that I think about it, it seems pretty suprising to me that I don't use that thingy. Fact is I use the auto pilot all the time so we're going in a straight line a lot. The Highway thingy (for lack of a better name) would prove nice for adjusting the gain on the autopilot, just because it would show me if I was doing a lot of the old ~~~~~~~ stuff as opposed to the /\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/ stuff, when what I really want is a lot of the --------- sort of stuff. As it is now I tend to just zoom in on the map and sort of pay a little attention to if the track plot is keeping close to the bearing line. Of course its a Simrad Auto Pilot so it is alwasy right, exactly, perfectly, noshittin'around, deadass nuts on the line ... what more would you expect? [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]
Thom
"I command thee, O fish of the ocean, rise to my bait"
If you set the chart plotter to course up you can easly see which way your pointed. I find the highway useless also. Also on a straight leg if you punch you number in then go before you get blowen off track then you can zoom in and use your bearing line to tell weather you one side or the other. Of course wind and current have the biggest affect on holding to the bearing line.
Aw, come-on guys, give me a break. I used the thingy during the Gulf War to keep me on track, and again on the Macedonia-Serbia border to keep me from becoming front-page news.
I have the Raytheon 320 WAAS Chartplotter and a Raytheon Pathfinder radar. I don't use the route function very often, but do use the tracks frequently. I use the CDI (highway) display when running. I like it. You are correct about the delay in updating course changes. I keep an eye on my cross track error as I go, and it gives me an idea of what my crossline velocity is, so I have a feel for how much correction to steer. The error display is also scalable, which helps as well. My primary nav tools, however, are still my compass, and what's left of my brain. I glance at it (the compass!!) twice as often as I do my chartplotter & radar. I have fished with too many capt's who simply cannot steer a compass; it floors me, but I suppose it is a sign of the technology available today. Granted, it takes work when you are in a 22 foot boat moving 35 knots, but it's not THAT difficult. I also keep a log of compass courses between principle waypoints on my commonly traveled routes. When stuff happens and the only electricity is in your spark plugs, that magnetic compass will get you home if you know which heading(s) to take. I look at it this way, the electronics augment the compass, not the other way around. For what its worth.
Chartplotter Routes and Tracks, you use them? 
