Dumb question, but I'll ask anyway . . .

[Expidia]

So I'm trying to splash down early this year. But the rivers I go on (Hudson and the Mohawk) are windy and very shallow in places a few feet out the channel which is marked by red and green buoys "on season".

Due to ice they remove them over the winter. At least I saw them removing them on the Mohawk at the end of last season.

My dumb question is: even if they have not had a chance to install all of the channel marking buoys yet will they still show up on my Navionics chip which is in my Humminbird combo GPS unit.

I read they use a GPS to put them back in the exact spot each year.

But buoys in the river or not I should still be able to navigate the channel by the GPS's map chip and the missing buoys will show on my combos map . . . right (I'd hate to bang up my new paint job on my props my first day out).

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Dumb question, but I'll ask anyway . . .

GPS and a locator should allow you to navigate at slow speeds. If you've been on the rivers before, you should have a good idea where the channel is.

 

[Expidia]

Re: Dumb question, but I'll ask anyway . . .

GPS and a locator should allow you to navigate at slow speeds. If you've been on the rivers before, you should have a good idea where the channel is.

That's a reponse but not aan answer to my question . . .

I know the unit and map chip allows me to navigate but . . .

The question is: will the green and red buoys still show on the map chip even though they are physically gone for the winter.

I just drove over a bridge crossing the Hudson while on an errand and did not see the physical buoys in place yet.

 

[xxturbowesxx]

Re: Dumb question, but I'll ask anyway . . .

It is a little difficult to understand what you are asking but ill take a shot.

The buoys are stored into your device and only you could have deleted them.

They are still there if they were before even if the markers are physically gone.

 

[timalabim]

Re: Dumb question, but I'll ask anyway . . .

If the markers were on the gps before, then they will still be there. The must be on the maps since they aren't getting a signal from the markers unless you are using radar.

 

[Expidia]

Re: Dumb question, but I'll ask anyway . . .

I'll try to be clearer . . .

If I had set a way point last year like if I was fishing next to a buoy or before I left a launch ramp then yes of course those way points are in the GPS flash memory which is stored on the card.

But when I bought the Navionics map that comes on the card which I inserted into the GPS the green and red navigational buoys for all waterways are already on the map. These are still going to be on there I figure.

I just was wondering because the GPS reads my boat position. When they re-install the green and red buoys this season, if they move them because of shifting sands those buoys might be in a different place which would effect all pre-made maps. I don't know if I can update the Navionics chip to cover that.

My guess is they put them back in the exact location they were last year and if there was shifting sands over the winter from ice flows they would have to keep the buoys where they were and dredge the channel to their 12 foot minimum.

 

[John_S]

Re: Dumb question, but I'll ask anyway . . .

I'll try to be clearer . . .

But when I bought the Navionics map that comes on the card which I inserted into the GPS the green and red navigational buoys for all waterways are already on the map. These are still going to be on there I figure.

:CORRECT

I just was wondering because the GPS reads my boat position. When they re-install the green and red buoys this season, if they move them because of shifting sands those buoys might be in a different place which would effect all pre-made maps. I don't know if I can update the Navionics chip to cover that.

: I doubt that the Navionics chip has been updated in a number of years with exact bouy locations, if they locate them in different spots each year. You can not update the card. You can only enter your own waypoint for the markers.

My guess is they put them back in the exact location they were last year and if there was shifting sands over the winter from ice flows they would have to keep the buoys where they were and dredge the channel to their 12 foot minimum.

: That would be my guess.

 

[Expidia]

Re: Dumb question, but I'll ask anyway . . .

Thanks for that feedback John. I know you see the same problem on the Mohawk where you are as I do near Albany. The Mohawk is not very wide and pretty narrow running between the Buoys too. The Mohawk is pretty much silt out side of the channel and I'm pretty familiar with the stretches I frequent over the years. If I wander out of the channel I'm likey to hit silt when I'm fishing. Sometimes, once out of the channnel becuase of the shifting silt it's instantly only a few feet deep.

It's the lower part of the Hudson I worry about. It snakes around so quick in places, you take your eyes off the screen for a minute and wham. doesn't take much to get way out of the channel. The Hudson's silty too, but it has many more rocky ledges and with a 6 foot tide to deal with you're OK going down as an example and a few hours later there is only 1 foot of water in certain areas that you went over only a few hours ago.

I know everyone says to only depend on a chart but on a small boat it's tough to use a chart especially with the wind blowing.

I guess I'll just play it safe and wait for the navigational aids to be put back on the rivers before I venture out on lesser known to me areas. The GPS can be off enough to run into trouble. That why they have a disclaimer with the Navionnics chip to not to depend on it for navigation and use a chart.

 

[bowman316]

Re: Dumb question, but I'll ask anyway . . .

a lot of buies have no chips in them to correspond with a gps. The positions of each buoy is just programmed into the map for the gps, by someone who set up the buoy.

So it will always show up on the gps. That is how the get the actualy buoy back in the exact same spot in the spring, using to coordinates saved for that buoy.

 

[Expidia]

Re: Dumb question, but I'll ask anyway . . .

a lot of buies have no chips in them to correspond with a gps. The positions of each buoy is just programmed into the map for the gps, by someone who set up the buoy.

So it will always show up on the gps. That is how the get the actualy buoy back in the exact same spot in the spring, using to coordinates saved for that buoy.

i knew they used a gps to locate the correct placement. i never thought of some buoys having chips inside, that's interesting.

 

[JB]

Re: Dumb question, but I'll ask anyway . . .

Okay. Now that we have settled that, what was the dumb question you had??

 

[Expidia]

Re: Dumb question, but I'll ask anyway . . .

Okay. Now that we have settled that, what was the dumb question you had??

Hahaha . . . I thought it was dumb to ask if the satellite could read the position of a navigational aid (like a buoy) and if they took them away would they still show up on my GPS, so I could navigate and stay within the channel just by following my GPS screen even though the buoys are not physically there anymore

 

[Expidia]

Re: Dumb question, but I'll ask anyway . . .

Took the boat out for a spin today on the river. No buoys in place yet but they all showed up on my GPS screen just like they were there . . .

 

[wajajaja02]

Re: Dumb question, but I'll ask anyway . . .

well u have ur answer, but here's a thought anyway, I take my chart plotter with me in the car on a ride across the gw, and the newburg beacon bridge or the tappan zee, and it plots out the river below as if I'm on it.

 

[Expidia]

Re: Dumb question, but I'll ask anyway . . .

That's pretty cool. The satellite does not know vertical distances. It amazes me that my Humminbird combo GPS shows me 3d views of whats under me too. But those contours are really on the navionics map chip. The new units have some amazing views. Looks like the Google earth views of the harbors before you enter them.