This is of some concern to me, since I'm hoping to get good advice
here. I just pulled out of a thread here where I posted a black and
white gov report. It was a written simply in plain English and had a
few simple numbers. That OT thread is over for me and I want to get
back to boating for a bit.
But the response I got from a boater showed he was unable to read it
clearly, and his math increased the costs shown by a factor of 6.
Not naming names here, but I was shocked.
What I'm afraid of is having somebody here recommend, say, a 240 hp
motor when he really means 40 hp, and then the dealer calls me and
says the boat is ready, but it sunk.
Please tell me that was an aberration, and there's nothing to worry
about, and that boaters have more of their senses working when they
talk about boats than they do when talking about other subjects.
BTW, do they have GPS units that talk?

--Vic

"Vic Smith" wrote in message
...
This is of some concern to me, since I'm hoping to get good advice
here. I just pulled out of a thread here where I posted a black and
white gov report. It was a written simply in plain English and had a
few simple numbers. That OT thread is over for me and I want to get
back to boating for a bit.
But the response I got from a boater showed he was unable to read it
clearly, and his math increased the costs shown by a factor of 6.
Not naming names here, but I was shocked.
What I'm afraid of is having somebody here recommend, say, a 240 hp
motor when he really means 40 hp, and then the dealer calls me and
says the boat is ready, but it sunk.
Please tell me that was an aberration, and there's nothing to worry
about, and that boaters have more of their senses working when they
talk about boats than they do when talking about other subjects.
BTW, do they have GPS units that talk?

--Vic


54% of the population is stupid. Do you have any other questions? Would you
like a recipe for chocolate-mascarpone mousse which works better than
whatever drug it was that men were putting in women's drinks a few years
back?

On Fri, 10 Nov 2006 03:24:52 GMT, Short Wave Sportfishing
wrote:


What exactly is it you want to know?

I've asked some questions and will have plenty of questions as time
goes by.

BTW, do they have GPS units that talk?

Good question.

Yes they can, but no they don't. How's that for obfuscation?

Allow me to explain. Garmin makes general purpose handheld GPS units
that use audio prompts when you use the Mapsource auto software, but
as far as I know, no with the Bluechart marine software. In other
words, the hardware is there to do it, but the marine software doesn't
support it. As far as I know, and I must confess that I looked into
this a while ago so things may have changed, marine software doesn't
use a speech interface as auto software does.

The reason, as explained to me, is that marine mapping is different
than auto mapping because of how the units are used. Additionally,
marine use is generally different due to other factors like set/drift,
wind, wave and the fact that on open water, you can pretty much go
where you want as long as it's safe.

Now, can you use a chartplotter functions with an audio alarm? Yes.
Will it tell you you are at a waypoint or require some sort of course
correction? Yes. Will it talk to you - not that I know of.

Thanks SWS, you've given me some info to dig into.

--Vic

"Duke Nukem" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 10 Nov 2006 03:37:45 GMT, "JoeSpareBedroom"
wrote:

Would you like a recipe for chocolate-mascarpone mousse

Pansy.. :)

You haven't tasted this stuff. This is better than whatever Keith Richard
pumps into his veins.

"Short Wave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 09 Nov 2006 20:50:36 -0600, Vic Smith
wrote:

This is of some concern to me, since I'm hoping to get good advice
here. I just pulled out of a thread here where I posted a black and
white gov report. It was a written simply in plain English and had a
few simple numbers. That OT thread is over for me and I want to get
back to boating for a bit.
But the response I got from a boater showed he was unable to read it
clearly, and his math increased the costs shown by a factor of 6.
Not naming names here, but I was shocked.
What I'm afraid of is having somebody here recommend, say, a 240 hp
motor when he really means 40 hp, and then the dealer calls me and
says the boat is ready, but it sunk.
Please tell me that was an aberration, and there's nothing to worry
about, and that boaters have more of their senses working when they
talk about boats than they do when talking about other subjects.

What exactly is it you want to know?
BTW, do they have GPS units that talk?

Good question.

Yes they can, but no they don't. How's that for obfuscation?

Allow me to explain. Garmin makes general purpose handheld GPS units
that use audio prompts when you use the Mapsource auto software, but
as far as I know, no with the Bluechart marine software. In other
words, the hardware is there to do it, but the marine software doesn't
support it. As far as I know, and I must confess that I looked into
this a while ago so things may have changed, marine software doesn't
use a speech interface as auto software does.

The reason, as explained to me, is that marine mapping is different
than auto mapping because of how the units are used. Additionally,
marine use is generally different due to other factors like set/drift,
wind, wave and the fact that on open water, you can pretty much go
where you want as long as it's safe.

Now, can you use a chartplotter functions with an audio alarm? Yes.
Will it tell you you are at a waypoint or require some sort of course
correction? Yes. Will it talk to you - not that I know of.

This is crazy talk.

On Thu, 09 Nov 2006 21:46:46 -0600, Vic Smith
wrote:

On Fri, 10 Nov 2006 03:24:52 GMT, Short Wave Sportfishing
wrote:
BTW, do they have GPS units that talk?

Good question.

Yes they can, but no they don't. How's that for obfuscation?

Allow me to explain.

explanation snipped

Thanks SWS, you've given me some info to dig into.

Short Wave, I've already come up with some info on the accuracy of
GPS, which I pasted below.
I still have more digging to do.

--Vic
************************************************** *******************************************
A woman in a hot air balloon realizes she is lost. She lowers her
altitude and spots a man fishing from a boat below.
She shouts to him, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I
would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."
The man consults his portable GPS and replies, "You're in a hot air
balloon, approximately 30 feet above a ground elevation of 2346 feet
above sea level. You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude
and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude.
She rolls her eyes and says, "You must be a Democrat!"
"I am," replies the man. "How did you know?"
"Well," answers the balloonist, "everything you tell me is technically
correct, but I have no idea what to do with your information, and I'm
still lost. Frankly, you're not much help to me."
The man smiles and responds, "You must be a Republican."
"I am," replies the balloonist. "How did you know?"
"Well," says the man, "You don't know where you are or where you're
going. You've risen to where you are, due to a large quantity of hot
air. You made a promise that you have no idea how to keep, and now you
expect me to solve your problem. You're in exactly the same position
you were in before we met, but, somehow, now it's my fault."

On Fri, 10 Nov 2006 03:24:52 GMT, Short Wave Sportfishing
wrote:

What exactly is it you want to know?
BTW, do they have GPS units that talk?

Good question.

I don't need a talking GPS.

I have a wife.

When I ask her where the off button is, she gets sulky and rude.

"Short Wave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 10 Nov 2006 01:33:38 -0500, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Fri, 10 Nov 2006 03:24:52 GMT, Short Wave Sportfishing
wrote:

What exactly is it you want to know?
BTW, do they have GPS units that talk?

Good question.

I don't need a talking GPS.

I have a wife.

When I ask her where the off button is, she gets sulky and rude.

ROTFL!!!!!


Once in a while, when required, I just point the TV clicker at Mrs.E. and
frantically push buttons.
Sometimes she gets the hint.

Eisboch

"Short Wave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 10 Nov 2006 07:03:46 -0500, "Eisboch" wrote:


"Short Wave Sportfishing" wrote in message
. ..
On Fri, 10 Nov 2006 01:33:38 -0500, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Fri, 10 Nov 2006 03:24:52 GMT, Short Wave Sportfishing
wrote:

What exactly is it you want to know?
BTW, do they have GPS units that talk?

Good question.

I don't need a talking GPS.

I have a wife.

When I ask her where the off button is, she gets sulky and rude.

ROTFL!!!!!

Once in a while, when required, I just point the TV clicker at Mrs.E. and
frantically push buttons.
Sometimes she gets the hint.

I've done that for years.

It never seems to work though.

Slight left turn: My statistical sample of two women says something's odd
with all of them. Two examples:

1) You're watching a movie. Someone is about to say something VERY important
to the plot of the movie, and it's plainly obvious to any regular person
that it's going to be whispered. At that precise moment, women will say
"pass the popcorn". It's always when you're watching something you can't
rewind.

2) This has happened multiple times, so I know it's an absolute thing. I'm
in the back of the boat, steering with the tiller on the outboard. We're in
a river known for lots of floating tree chunks, travelling at
log-appropriate speed. Woman's sitting up front, and claiming she will let
me know if she sees anything. When she does, she announces it in a voice
appropiate for the bedroom, not for a situation where there's 75 db of motor
noise. When I (with great respect) mention this discrepancy, I'm told I'm
grouchy.

"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote in message
...


Slight left turn: My statistical sample of two women says something's odd
with all of them. Two examples:

1) You're watching a movie. Someone is about to say something VERY
important to the plot of the movie, and it's plainly obvious to any
regular person that it's going to be whispered. At that precise moment,
women will say "pass the popcorn". It's always when you're watching
something you can't rewind.

2) This has happened multiple times, so I know it's an absolute thing. I'm
in the back of the boat, steering with the tiller on the outboard. We're
in a river known for lots of floating tree chunks, travelling at
log-appropriate speed. Woman's sitting up front, and claiming she will let
me know if she sees anything. When she does, she announces it in a voice
appropiate for the bedroom, not for a situation where there's 75 db of
motor noise. When I (with great respect) mention this discrepancy, I'm
told I'm grouchy.


I've posted this story before .... can't remember if on this NG or not so
forgive if it's a repeat, but here goes:

A few years ago we had the RV bug, thinking of using it for winter trips to
Florida and other warms places.
So, I went out and bought a 36' Pace Arrow class A motorhome ... looks like
a bus.
I drove it home and was attempting to back it into a narrow, tree lined,
gravel parking spot that had a dog leg in it. The RV was equipped with a
rear facing camera on the back that I could monitor from the driver's seat.

So, I asked Mrs.E. to go behind the RV and make sure I wasn't going to hit
anything as I backed in.
As I started to back up, she gave me the "come on back" signal with her
hands, then suddenly started shaking her head from side to side. I jammed
on the brakes. She looked up at the camera, and started to give me the hand
signals to back up again. Started moving the rig backwards and she again
started shaking her head violently from side to side. Jam on the brakes
again.

This was repeated a couple of more times and I finally threw the RV in Park,
jumped out and asked her why she was shaking her head everytime I started
backing up. Her answer?

"I was saying, "No .... you are not going to hit anything"".

Eisboch