Marine GPS

Marine GPS

By Anne Ahira

On land it’s pretty easy to find your way. There are landmarks and if worse comes to worse you can always stop at a gas station and ask for directions to help you get on the right track.

If you are out on a large body of water there is a good chance that all you can see is flat ocean and an occasional seagull or plane in the sky. That makes it hard to get your bearings. A Marine GPS will help pinpoint your location and help you navigate to the points that you are looking to arrive at.

Personally I never leave home even on dry land without my GPS and I certainly would never try and go anywhere on the water without a Marine GPS to guide me.

The Marine GPS is made a little tougher than the standard GPS that you use in your car. They are for the most part waterproof for the obvious reason that they are used on the water and are likely to get wet from water spray and / or rain during bad weather.

As you might imagine they also cost more than your standard automotive GPS unit. You can purchase entry-level car GPS units for less than a hundred dollars. That same price may only get you the mounting bracket for the marine counterpart.

Even people who usually only navigate smaller lakes and body’s of water that are no that large can benefit form using a Marine GPS. It takes the human error factor out of the navigational process and allows you to concentrate on the actual art of boating rather than being concerned with how to get where you are going. In short it makes you a safer captain of your vessel.

Your Marine GPS will give you all the needed information such as speed and actual direction and will even calculate the approximate arrival time based on the data that it has to go on. If you have a certain distance to go and are traveling a fairly steady speed the unit can tell you fairly close to the actual arrival time. This can be very useful for you if you are trying to stay on a specific schedule.

The Coast Guard recommends that all vessels be outfitted with a quality Marine GPS unit so that they can remain safe and not get lost. People have attempted to use other types of GPS units on the water and have had varied degrees of success and lack of success from them.

Remember, if it is not designed for use on water it will still give you direction and speed and may even get you moving in the correct direction but it is still not likely to be waterproof and it doesn’t take much moisture to ruin electronics, even a very humid day can cause damage and if you are on salt water, forget about it.