Trusting GPS at night?

3 injured on the V relying on GPS. Ack, makes me think twice for using gps as a source at night. 4th one this year?

Story

I trust my gps at night in a couple situations, one I know the lake very good, and two I’m tracing a route/trail I went earlier that day. I also have a couple big spot lights.

Heard of plenty of people that had problems following their GPS though, I guess I never really trust mine for depth unless I’ve been there earlier…

Even scarier to trust one on the river, but it’s better than nothing.

If you run a trail that was taken out when you left, you should be good to go on familiar waters.

What I see with most people that have problems following a trail at night is:

1 Going too fast.
2 Jerky and sharp corrections when steering
3 Most do not zoom in enough.

I use mine all the time.. That said common sense goes a long ways!!!!

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That said common sense goes a long ways!!!!

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Now – maybe my GPS isn’t 100% calibrated, but some of the close to shore maps / trails on mine might have beached my boat had I been following at night.

Common sense

General direction and distance.

The post is talking about people watching their GPS and NOT watching where they are going in the dark and running into other boats.

There is no such thing as common sense. If it were commomn everybody would have it. I knew a guy that got turned around while idleling in the fog. He said he didn’t trust his GPS.

Interesting story. I assume they were on plane. At night, in the dark.. Is that normal ? Must have been going fairly quick to cause serious injury.

At the end of the story it says.. GPS units typically don’t show underwater features that can damage a boat” My first thought to that is.. “umm, ya think ?”

I haven’t had a GPS untit that long and have trusted it at night. I zoom way in and keep a split screen with sonar on the other side so you can see dpeth as well. It really wasn’t too hard
Just my $.02

Briank trusts his at night when guiding and he hits the mayflies head on.

Seriously though, make sure you ALWAYS run the route during the daylight and mark waypoints along the way so you know its a safe route. Use common sense and drive slow.

Thanks, Bill

Who drives their boat fast at 2 am??????? Not me. Usually drunk or stupid people. Or drunk stupid people.

Talk Radio 100.3 keeps reporting the cause of the accident was the “GPS”

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Seriously though, make sure you ALWAYS run the route during the daylight and mark waypoints along the way so you know its a safe route. Use common sense and drive slow.
Thanks, Bill

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Thats what I do, and I’ll mark hazards like dead heads on the water with an icon or waypoint.

One thing that makes a big difference is to change your map orientation to Track up instead of north up. Much easier to follow your trail.

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The post is talking about people watching their GPS and NOT watching where they are going in the dark and running into other boats.

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“Their boat struck a rock formation and an island near the
Fortune Bay Casino in Everett Bay on Lake Vermillon.”

Doesn’t say anything about hitting a boat in the story!

I have complete faith in my GPS. I use it 6 nights per week for about 6 weeks out of the year, traveling about 20 miles each night.

With that being said there are a number of things that will “help” insure a safe ride.

Since I travel the river, staying in the channel and away from the channel markers are very important to me. This can be done by clearing your trails…then, traveling the exact position to be traveled at night. Using LakeMaster software, change the bread crumb trial into a “route”.

Once this is done, the screen display is changed to the compass rose and then the red arrow is kept to the top of the screen…if the red arrow goes to the left…the boat is turned to the left.

This route should be checked at least twice in the daylight to ensure it’s totally accurate…then I check it each and every time I’m going out…mostly checking to make sure my electronics are working.

Using the route system leaves nothing to guess as far as zooming in to the trail, it’s the same everytime.

Two items that need to be concerned with while using this system. One, the accuracy of your gps as it could change from 30 foot accuracy to 130 feet of accuracy (seldom is my Lawrance unit off more than 30 feet and normally closer).
The other is moving objects…boats without lights (happens way too often…and I am talking in the main river channel) and the worst…trees/deadheads or as Stuart would say…DEER!

Speed is always a concern. Speaking for myself, if I’ve seen wood floating in the daylight or the water is rising…my speed goes down to 18 mph in the dark. Normally 23-24 mph is max at night because by the time I see something my reaction time is too slow to avoid it. At 30 mph…forget it, I will hit the log it’s guarenteed.
There is an area that always seems to collect the floating stuff….that’s the area that I always use a light and slow down when the wind is from the West.

One other point, if I see something that doen’t look right or is out of the ordianry…I slow down and at times stop until I can figure out what the object is. The last unidentified object was a pleasure craft with out a anchor light…showed up on the river as a light object ahead of me.

Following a trail is a good guide while idling along running blind…but there’s too many things that will give a false sense of securtiy. Knowing your equipment and your limitations will lead to a safe night on the river or lake.

Z71hunt..the map that comes with the units are WAY off! I’ve boated through downtown Prescott many times!

I can’t speak about lakes but I wouldn’t trust a Navionics or LakeMaster chip for night navagation on a river. Too many things change from year to year.

I know I made a believer in my brother in law when a fog rolled in on us one night. We passed Prsscott and never saw the lights!

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…then, traveling the exact position to be traveled at night. Using LakeMaster software, change the bread crumb trial into a “route”.

Once this is done, the screen display is changed to the compass rose and then the red arrow is kept to the top of the screen…if the red arrow goes to the left…the boat is turned to the left.

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Brian…I’m going to have to try that, but I don’t understand what your saying yet. I’ve seen the ‘compass rose’ screen, and I’m not sure what I’m looking at.

So, you have a new trail you just made…change it to a ‘route’…Do you have to tell it to navigate ‘back’?

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Speaking of trails…

I have many. The default ‘new trail’ only has so much memory allowed.

When ever I am on a new body of water, I make a new trail and change the memory to 9999. If you only have one trail, and the default memory, you only get a few days of trail info. (The old trails get erased)!

My trails are:

Mississippi
St. Croix
Minnesota
Mille Lacs
Lake Superior
Misc (for metro lakes).

If I do go back to an area with old trail, I don’t make more trails on top of the others…my screen gets too cluttered. I just uncheck the ‘active trail’ box and follow the old trail.

For anyone reading this: I did this with my Lowrance H20. Now I’m running a 520c, and have only great things to say about the Lowrance stuff I have.

I’ve seen the ‘compass rose’ screen, and I’m not sure what I’m looking at.

So, you have a new trail you just made…change it to a ‘route’…Do you have to tell it to navigate ‘back’?

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Without a saved and then activated route, the rose is just a compass that tells the user the direction they are traveling.

There’s two ways to make a route.

With your regular gps screen selected…press menue twice, scroll down to ROUTES then select NEW.
This will allow the user to make a route using a “rubberband line” with waypoints. Make your route over the bread crumb trail that you’ve carefully run with your boat earlier. Remember only 100 waypoints Max in a route. Save it with a name…like Everts to Kings Cove…the starting point (Everts) is named first). You’ll also notice on this screen there are other options like PREVIEW and REVERSE.

The other way would be to load your carefully run trail to a chip and transfer it to the LakeMaster Conture Pro software, then make your route, save it and transfer it back to your gps.

Select your route to run…and the compass rose become a pointer telling the skipper which way to go. An alarm will sound if you are too far of course.

Remember, it’s up to you to check to ensure this route is accurate. Run your route in the daylight as many time as it take for you to feel comfortable with it AND your GPS. I’ve noticed that folks just learning traveling routes seem to over correct in their turns…this will disappear with experiance.

One other point that’s fairly obvious in river boating but worth mentioning is that each spring the channel markers could move because of high water…ect. Check your route in the daylight before trusting at a very minimum damage to your boat with it.

Thanks for sharing Briank. What else you got in that bag of tricks? Gotta try that rubberband one.

Just to reiterate the prior notes, the GPS is only as good as the computer between your ears. I have done tons of night work on the Mississippi River (without lights) and the GPS is the best tool out there. It has saved my butt in fog a couple times. My handheld usually get 10ft accuracy with the WAAS enable functions.

The worst problems arefolks that don’t take the time to become river savy. That’s what causes accident. Go to your favorite public access and sit at the ramp for a 1/2 hr and you’ll understand completely.

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The worst problems are folks that don’t take the time to become river savy.

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THAT can’t be over stated enough!

Other tricks? If your boat becomes disabled…get out of the river channel and anchor…with whatever lights you have ON.

I listened to a near collision between a barge tow and a pleasure craft last year. The PC was in the channel disabled and asked the tow captian if he could go around him…<doah> I was on the edge of my seat when the tow said “I didn’t see you!”

A VHF Marine band radio the next must have for night fishing.

Thanks for the info Brian. I usually follow the trail on my map screen, but I’ll have to try out the other way too.

Jon