Navigating Winni for new boaters

[4Fun]

Originally Posted by HellRaZoR004

Only issue is it's very hard to see buoy's at certain times of the day, let alone differentiate the color.

True, they are hard to see but if you use the chart and head toward the next marker they will come in sight with plenty of time to adjust course. I think the key skill to using the chart like this is recognizing the shoreline and matching it up to the chart so you are confident in what direction you are heading.

[Barney Bear]

Sometimes, the white portion of a spar buoy is not visible, particularly when the lake level is near full. The red top buoy west of Dollar I$land [near East Bear Island] presently is very difficult to spot as only the red portion is visible. 🐻

[Dave R]

I had to replace my chart plotter last week and my new one has a feature that displays a heading line. It's very handy for knowing when you are on the right course to pass a marker on the correct side. If you have this feature, enable it and try it out.

[CrownRay]

Ever get confused about the markers? Just as BEN!

BEN (Black, East, North)

[Rattletrap]

Update:
Went out yesterday down to Alton Bay up to Meredith and everywhere in between awesome day!!

The real reason for the post is. I had been using the compass that you see below for navigating. But as most of you know, that because it shows your heading the east/west ect. appears backward from the actual direction that east/west is .....So thankfully yesterday I found that my GPS has a "compass tape" on it. Which displays your heading and also displays east/west in their actual correct location.....THIS WAS AH HA MOMENT I'VE BEEN WATING FOR!!!!!! When navigating became no longer as intimidating............... Now before anyone says it yes, I could have just went the opposite direction of what the actual compass read but, most times when a boater gets to a buoy, you need to make a decision fairly quickly and any indecision leads to doubt........... I just wanted to share this for any new "captains" this was a game changer for me. I'm comfortable with RSW BNE and knowing which direction is correct, made decision making easy!

....Have a safe holiday weekend everyone!!!

[Rich]

I can't see your image, but you may find that you're looking at the wrong part of the compass.

As an example look at this compass:



Looking at the far end, you can see the boat is heading north. Looking at the near EDGE, you can see the heading in degrees (0).

But if you tried to look down on the compass and looked at the near end on top of the compass card, you're looking at a "S", which is behind you.

Your compass image didn't show up so I don't know what you are actually looking at.

[Rich]

OH now I see your compass, I'm not sure why it wasn't showing before. Yes, this type of compass can be confusing at times, especially when trying to navigate on the proper side of markers on the lake. I think it's called a 'direct reading' compass.

I prefer one like the image I put in the previous post. Ritchie calls this type their 'combi dial' type of compass.

I think if I had that type of compass, I'd swap it out for one that was more like the unit I displayed. It's trying to show you your heading as the boat is heading, you can't look at it when heading north and say 'east is to my left'. Wow, that will screw you up big time!