[Paddlewise] Using a GPS unit

 -----Original Message-----
From: Sisler, Clyde [mailto:Clyde.Sisler_at_wang.com]
Sent: Tuesday, June 23, 1998 10:42 AM
To: 'Paddlewise'
Subject: [Paddlewise] Freeport, ME

<snip>
High tide on Friday was about 7 and that was when I took off.  I had a 4
hour window on the tide to get back in so that was no problem.  This was
to be my navigation day and I plotted a course from island to island the
night before.  The idea was to see how well I did and use the GPS to
identify the coordinates, which I wrote down and would use tomorrow to
re-trace the course with GPS GoTo commands and everything went pretty
much as planned.  The key for me was to make sure I knew exactly where I
was at all times.  I really only had one problem and it took me about 30
minutes to confirm I really was in the place I thought I was.

<snip>

I got the GPS 12XL manual out to see how to GoTo the coordinates I had
written down faithfully during the day and found out you can't.  I
didn't save them because each waypoint is assigned a sequential number,
which by themselves are meaningless.  You can give each waypoint a name
but that is too time consuming.  It appears the only thing you can enter
manually is a bearing and distance and I wasn't going to do all that.
Bummer.  Well, I'll know better next time.

<snip>

**********************************************************************

If you can get coordinates off a map, the best way to use your GPS
12XL is to program the coordinates of your put-in, destinations, and
other significant or useful locations into the unit when planning the
trip. That's also the best time to annotate your waypoints with
meaningful names. After that, selecting a destination with GoTo is
easy. Also, once your waypoints are programmed, it is fairly quick
and easy to create one or more routes.

In the 12XL you can program the absolute coordinates of a waypoint as
well as the relative coordinates. Naming a waypoint using the rocker
pad is tedious, but even two- or three-character abbreviations such as
A1, A2, etc., can be meaningful without being too tedious to enter.
For a trip to Sand Island in the Apostle Islands, I labeled the major
references on the island SAND1, SAND2, etc. going around the island in
a clockwise direction, but I could have used S1, S2, etc.

If you use the Mark button to record your location, the default name of
the waypoint is a sequential number, but if you can remember which
number you started with for a particular trip and where you marked the
waypoints, you still have some useful information. It is less confusing,
however, to name the waypoints yourself.

Also, if the waypoints are sequentially numbered, you can select a
destination by highlighting it on the Map page, where the relative
positions of the waypoints are shown, and pressing GoTo. You can select
the orientation of the Map page to have either north up or your
direction of travel up. With sequentially numbered numbers, north up
would probably be least confusing, since the Map page would be oriented
like a paper map.

The Garmin GPS 12XL has an amazing array of features, but what they are
and how to use them is not intuitive, and the organization of the manual
is hardly a model of clarity. My best recommendation is to sit down with
the manual and 12XL at home and practice everything in the manual until
you have a good grasp of the 12XL's operation. Then preload it with
meaningfully named waypoints before you set out.

Chuck Holst  
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