Edgar wrote:
"Capt.American" wrote in message
ups.com...

After reading the responce you provided I suggest you hang your charts
on the wall and marvel at all the information you have no clue existed.
What a putz you are you deserve a chart that rolls up when you try to
use it. Go buy software with a chart plotter GPS interface.
Surely you can push a few buttons right?


Capt. American's reply does raise another interesting issue.
Like I implied in my last post, I do have paper charts for everywhere I go
but I also have a chart plotter aboard and the memory chip for this cost me
the equivalent of $330. Now where I sail in Oslo fjord this remains useful
because there are hundreds, if not thousands, of islands and small rocks
which do not change and there are hardly any navigational buoys and no
sandbanks at all so the chip on the plotter is still a useful guide and I
only bought it last year anyway. But how often is someone who has bought
one of these expensive chips going to get an updated one?

A really good point. I use a Garmin GPSMap 175, given to me in 1997.
The chart I use most often, Portland to Cape Cod, will be 10 years
old next summer and the format is now obsolete. I have a number of
slightly newer chips for the East Coast, but nothing more recent then
2000.

Fortunately, this is not my primary tool, I use the GPS to verify my
position on a paper chart, which is up to date.

I'm glad you brought this up because I'm planning to head Down East
this coming summer and don't have the chip, so I have to start looking
on ebay!


Paper charts are not cheap but you can afford to update/replace them as
necessary, so IMO they are not outdated technology until chart plotter chips
come down to reasonable figures.