I bought it now what do I do?

[hardee]

. I suppose some of you will know the secret to comfortable coexistence but in the morning my boat always looked like burglars had ransacked it during the night. Don’t step on Fido in the dark and you kids quit that fighting! I think you’re going to need a bigger boat, lol. Now I’ll sit back and prepare to be convinced otherwise. More power to ya if you get it done.

Well, my secret was marrying a woman who spent the first 18 years of her life living aboard a boat with two parents, two brothers and a dog. When we bought our first boat she only had two demands, the only wood could be a flag staff, and the cleats had to be beefy. We've been married over 60 years and still miss our 16 footers.

Congratulations Marty. What you did, do and say makes good sense :smiled

As to 2+2+1 on a boat, there are others here who do that , and get along. My advice would be to try short trips first. Find places for everything on the boat and then keep them there. Back in early sailing days I had a Montgomery 15, and we (2) would spend weekends, and occasionally a week at a time on it. Daytimes, the birth was stuffed with food box, cooler, and clothes bags, at night that all went into the cockpit and we got in there to sleep. When we moved onto a 22 footer, it was like moving from a V dub bug into a grayhound bus.

Learn as you go, do what works.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

 

[Pat Anderson]

There are good MFD by Garmin (and others) which are not that expensive, have charts for both rivers and coastal waters. $500 will buy:

Garmin® ECHOMAP™ UHD 63cv Fish Finder/Chartplotter Combo with a bright, sunlight-readable 6" display. The included GT24 transducer provides Ultra High-Definition ClearVü scanning sonar for crystal-clear images of what's below your boat, along with Garmin high wide CHIRP traditional sonar for remarkable target separation. Preloaded LakeVü g3 inland maps with integrated Navionics® data cover more than 17,000 lakes with up to 1' contours

.

Only a hundred or so dollars more, you can find a larger MFD with both inland and coastal waters.

I just looked at that Garmin online. The $500 will indeed buy the chartplotter with a transducer and the lake chart card (micro SD?). The one with the Bluechart G3 is $599, but not both coastal and lakes, and when you move beyond the 6" display the price goes up. $750 for the 7" and $1,200 for the 9".

Our iPad is plenty bright, we never had an issue with that. We also have never experienced any lag with it acquiring satellites. We have Aquamap, and we bought it when it came with lifetime chart updates for both coastal waters and rivers but not lakes (I think, going from memory here), and for the time being at least the C-80 is still functional for depth, odometer (or whatever you call it on the water), and as a chartplotter with old chart cards from California to Alaska. Chart features here do not change nearly as much as they do on the ICW with its ever-changing depths and hazards due to shoaling!

Now, for someone who does not already have an iPad with a GPS and the deal we have on Aquamap (they seem to have gone to a subscription chart update basis now), the Garmin would probably be the right choice. Not so much for us, but we would have to look at that Garmin if/when the C-80 outright dies.

Daydream is already tucked away in the garage for the winter, so we have some time to ponder options in any event.