[Paddlewise] A few thoughts on the etrex venture gps

Hey fellow paddlers

One month ago my three year old Garmin 12 GPS took it's final dunking.
I had seen it coming. A spring inside the battery compartment rusted
away last year and some of the push buttons have been acting strange
lately. I've most of the time kept the GPS in an Aquapac(tm) case, but
the case has been leaking for a while. Lesson learned: the GPS always
goes into a _waterproof_ case. 

I decided to replace the dead unit with the Garmin etrex Venture GPS.
One observation - the battery compartment of the Venture looks less
water-resistant than that of the 12 model. At least Garmin recognize
that the compartment isn't waterproof: Quote from the box:
"Electronics are protected if immersed, but battery compartment may
get wet."

Anyway I've learned two things, which may interest you:

First - The etrex models fits in the Aquapac mini phone case. This is
great - much less bulky than the small  Aquapac GPS case. 

Second - It's very hard to operate the tiny clickstick of the Venture
through the Aquapac case. This was never a problem with the Garmin 12.
Depending on how you use your GPS, this could be an important issue to
consider before buying a 'clickstick' model GPS. I've mostly stopped
using waypoints these days, and tend to only use the GPS for reading
my current position. Since the clickstick isn't required for this
operation, I can live with the problem. However if you like to play
with waypoints and routes while on the water(as I did, when I first
got my GPS), then you should think twice before getting a clickstick
GPS/aquapac compo.

 kind regards
  Peter

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