bajateresa - 4-30-2010 at 06:03 AM
This summer we're planning a boat trip from Lewiston, Idaho to Portland, Oregon. We need a GPS that will give us info on this trip, which covers the
Snake and Columbia rivers. Does anyone have a suggestion and experience with a GPS/depth sounder that wd have maps for this route?
Hook - 4-30-2010 at 06:15 AM
Wow, interesting question, interesting route!!!
Cant help you personally but what kind of boat?
Pescador - 4-30-2010 at 07:15 AM
First of all, I would not do a combination unit. For a trip of that nature, you need the redundancy of separate units which would mean still having
one insturment, if the other went on the blink for any reason.
Now it is a question of price range and your budget. I prefer Garmin for GPS over the Lowrance, but both have loyal followers. The big difference
is going to be in the software program that you have to add to the basic unit. Garmin uses a Blue Chip that should work great and you just make sure
that you are buying for your specific area. All three companies, Garmin, Lowrance, and Furuno buy their mapping programs from survey companies and
most of the new surveys are very accurate and should work pretty well for your navigation needs.
This is very different from Mexico where most of the navigation charts are very old and not very accurate. Where I live near Santa Rosalia, we are
off about 3 .5 miles to 4.2 miles so we can not use them for nighttime navigation.
I have used one of the newer programs on the inside passage and it was so accurate it was almost scary. We had the unit slaved to the autopilot and
it only took little minor corrections due to tides or wind.