Hi there, 'John Doe'.

I don't think this as sensitive a topic as you say. These things take a lot of the trouble out of navigation, and I don't think anyone really misses the pre-electronic days. If you look at an old copy of SEA KAYAKER magazine, you'll see many, almost obsessive, articles on kayak navigation: Light lists, estimating your speed by observing your wake, how to tell the Coast Guard where you are in trouble at, etc. It's still fun stuff to learn, but it's becoming arcane.

I have a mounted compass and carry the lowest-end Magellan GPS there was at the time, about $100. It has all the basic features for us that we need.

As mentioned in the earlier responses, you don't particularly want to depend absolutely on just it, though. A compass won't fail you, and even home-made charts are better than nothing. Of course, you have to know how to use them, in any event, and the same applies to the GPS.

While my unit was adveritised as waterproof ("It even floats!", they trumpeted), it is not. Use one of those clear waterproof bags, and, of course, TETHER whatever you have to you or the boat. Carry spare batteries in a truly dry spot on you or in the boat.

Besides the water problem, once in a while mine has difficulty finding where it is, particularly if it's turned on in a different location than where it was last used. A couple of weeks ago it took almost 15 minutes to get settled. Also, I understand the system gets shut down periodically for maintenance, but it works 99.999% of the time.

Some folks carry one, but use it only at stops. I have mine on all the time. With it, you can tell if it's the wind or the current that is taking you off-course, to within 50 feet or so, and allows you to make your correction much sooner and more accurately than a compass or lining up landmarks ever will. While a compass will tell you what direction your boat is pointed, a GPS will indicate your true course. Mine (probably all do) switches from true North to magnetic North, so you can easily use it together with the deck-mounted compass.

It's also fun to see how fast you can sprint.

I also use a VHF radio, but there is so little use for it that I now carry it in a bag inside the boat, though within reaching distance from the cockpit. Same water cautions apply, but you can use it through the bag. I've used it to talk to the Coast Guard. Sometimes they come up to see if you have PFDs, and the radio eliminates the potential for trouble with a large boat getting near you. Look for a model that can also use, say, AA batteries, so you don't have to worry about losing your NiCad power.

In the U.S. you don't need a license for the VHF, but you do in Canada.

Pete,
in Snohomish, WA