chartplotter

Water worthy Garmin International on Friday introduced HomePort, an application to make it easy for boaters to transfer data between a home PC and a "chartplotter" - GPS equipment used to plot precise courses on the water.

WN.com - Business News 2009

I turned on the chartplotter to find out if the wind and current had handed me a few bonus miles while I slept.

Rowing the ATLANTIC Roz Savage 2009

The chartplotter blinked into life, showing a blue screen warning me that it was no substitute for paper charts.

Rowing the ATLANTIC Roz Savage 2009

I passed the time alternately between sitting in my cabin, anxiously watching my course on the chartplotter and praying that the sea anchor would stop me being blown too far north, and standing out on deck looking out across the waves, vainly willing the wind to blow the other way.

Rowing the ATLANTIC Roz Savage 2009

I looked back at my chartplotter and pressed a button to view the latitude and longitude I had plotted for my final waypoint. 17 degrees north, 60 degrees and 43 minutes west.

Rowing the ATLANTIC Roz Savage 2009

The chartplotter display was inside my cabin, so naturally whenever I was looking at it I was not rowing and the second line therefore showed my angle of drift, rather than the angle I was steering while I rowed.

Rowing the ATLANTIC Roz Savage 2009

The chartplotter blinked into life, showing a blue screen warning me that it was no substitute for paper charts.

Rowing the ATLANTIC Roz Savage 2009

When I checked my position on the chartplotter I saw that, frustratingly, I had been pulled even farther south overnight.

Rowing the ATLANTIC Roz Savage 2009

I passed the time alternately between sitting in my cabin, anxiously watching my course on the chartplotter and praying that the sea anchor would stop me being blown too far north, and standing out on deck looking out across the waves, vainly willing the wind to blow the other way.

Rowing the ATLANTIC Roz Savage 2009

I would look at my chartplotter and check on the two lines extending from the blinking dot that represented my present position.

Rowing the ATLANTIC Roz Savage 2009