Water, water, everywhere
I had the pleasure last week of cruising along the Shannon river with my family in a four-berth river boat. Somehow I resisted the urge to bring all the comforts of the office (e.g. laptop) with me, though I did make sure to borrow a GPS unit to add to a Bluetooth-enabled device.
First thing to note: while GPS systems seem to be good for road navigation, they are not so good for rivers or lakes. Even the maps and satellite images are unreliable as they don’t show the lake edges properly, and certainly don’t show the underwater conditions (e.g. shallow rocky areas).
Second: don’t plot a route from buoy to buoy, or you’ll crash into them!
Third: the GPS may be able to indicate the heading to your next coordinate, but this doesn’t take into account the effect of wind or current.
These points, and a few more, convinced me that even for simple river/lake navigation, you need more than a common route-planning GPS device. I’m sure such things are on the market, but as I’m only on the water once a decade, I don’t think I’ll be investing in one any time soon.
However, I will say that the simple GPS device that I borrowed did come in handy. It gave an accurate indication of speed and estimated time of arrival, which is useful when you’re trying to reach river locks on time. It was also invaluable on our northward journey up Lough Ree where we hit gale force 6, heavy swell and driving rain. Thanks to having recorded the coordinates of the marker buoys on our way south, we now had a reliable return path north, despite the poor visibility.
Unfortunately, all the gadgetry at our disposal didn’t help with the weather, which was solid rain for the week.
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