Cruising

Planning Multi-Day Cruises—Overview

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When cruising on Questeria, we like to have a route on our chartplotter. This makes for a less stressful day. When cruising for several days, we plan the routes ahead of time and organize them using Google Sheets. We use a number of tools in the process, some of which I created myself. Below is a snapshot of a spreadsheet with our routes. 

Routes
Spreadsheet of Routes

This spreadsheet contains seven routes, each on its own sheet. Each sheet contains waypoints, latitudes, longitudes, distances, bearings, durations and times. I will explain how I did this in this series of posts.

In this post I give an overview of the route planning process. In future posts, I’ll talk about route planning tools we use before our cruise:

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Then, I’ll walk through an example using a route that I created as part of a trip from Florida Keys to Moore Haven, FL. Finally, I’ll explain how I put the routes together in a spreadsheet and load them on our Garmin 4208 chartplotter and other devices.

Initial Planning Intentions

When we start planning a multi-day cruise , we know our starting and ending points, but we might not know all the places we want to stop along the way. We might have some favorite anchorages or marinas along the way, or maybe a new place we want to explore. At this stage of planning, we think about how long we want to travel in one day. Travel time depends on boat speed and distance, but can vary greatly by current, wind and other factors. We also consider delays waiting for things like bridge openings. Weather is a big unknown. We have left an anchorage at the crack of dawn, and had to stop and wait for fog to clear. Then there’s Murphy’s Law — Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. With boating, you can never plan your trip exactly. We make intentions instead of plans.

From experience, we have found that leaving the dock can be the hardest part of the trip. There is always “one more thing” we forgot about. So, the first day we don’t plan to travel very far. After that, we get into a routine, and plan for longer days. We look at sunrise and sunset times on our chartplotter to take advantage of daylight hours. At the start of the day, we have a rough idea of where we want to stop, but we won’t decide until later, based on our progress during the day.

We learned early on, that our plans must be very flexible. It usually takes longer to get from point A to point B, than we think it will. The set of routes we make ahead of time are outdated by the first day of the cruise, but they are still useful.

I do our initial route planning on Windows. A few years ago, I transitioned from a laptop PC to a Windows tablet, with a docking station, mouse and portable keyboard. I find that this works best for my lifestyle. I could do planning on a Android or iOS tablet, but I have an easier time with a two-button mouse.

Route Planning Tools

My preferred tool for planning a route is OpenCPN.  My second choice is Garmin’s HomePort, but I use them both. I prefer the user-interface of OpenCPN and I prefer the the look of HomePort, but that is mostly personal preference.  I can import/export routes between OpenCPN and HomePort, but I must use HomePort to load the routes on my 4208 Garmin chartplotter.

When we first started cruising we bought a lot of cruising guides, like Managing the Waterway and Skipper Bob books. Now, we use ActiveCaptain. ActiveCaptain is a crowd-sourced database of navigational hazards, anchorages, marinas and more. It is essentially a cruising guide, written by cruisers, that is always up to date.

ChartPlotter

We have a Garmin 4208 chartplotter that we bought in 2006. It is now discontinued, but we are not ready to upgrade. It doesn’t have a fancy touch screen or WiFi, but it works just fine for us. It uses an SD card to transfer data to and from the computer.

Route Planning Process

We might cruise to get from one place to another, like our trip to Moore Haven, FL, or, like our trip to the Bahamas , we might just want to experience a place and come back home. Either way, we determine how long we want to take, and decide on places we might want to stop on the way.

Waypoints

First, we create waypoints for our cruise. We use ActiveCaptain to look for anchorages and marinas. Then, we use OpenCPN and HomePort to create waypoints for the places we found in ActiveCaptain.

Routes

For me, creating a route is an iterative process. First, I create a simple route, with a few waypoints. Then I zoom in and add, move or extend waypoints. I keep zooming in and modifying the route until I am happy with it. I export and import it between tools and look at it on different charts.

GPX Tools

When I am happy with all my routes I clean it up with the Clean Route tool, so it looks the same on OpenCPN, HomePort, my chartplotter, and ActiveCaptain. Then I create a Comma Separated Values, CSV, file that can be copied to a spreadsheet.

Chartplotter

The last step is to put all the routes and waypoints on our Garmin 4208 chartplotter. I also import them to a mobile device running the ActiveCaptain app. We are now ready to cruise.

Next

In the next post of this series I will talk in detail about HomePort. Then, in future posts I’ll talk about ActiveCaptain, GPX tools and putting it all together with an example.

Miscellaneous

After Irma

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I started writing this post in November 2018, approximately two months after Irma struck the FL Keys. I dropped it for a number of reasons — we were still busy working on the boat, but also, it was depressing to think about all the damage to the area and its impact on residents. Now, over a year later, things have improved. Damages are 95% repaired and Irma is becoming a distant memory. I am publishing the post as originally written, but with updates.

Irma was a category 4 hurricane that caused major damage to the state of Florida, especially the keys. (Click here to see details.) We were vacationing in Taos New Mexico, on September 10, when it hit Marathon. See post Hurricane Irma, for more information.

Questeria was hauled out, and on the hard when the storm hit. We lost the solar panels and had some water damage and mold. We also lost two vehicles that were parked at the marina and were flooded. Our two dock boxes floated away and were later recovered, but some of the contents were missing. Overall, we feel very fortunate that we didn’t lose more.

We get back to Questeria on September 24. (See page Tennessee to Florida.) She is waiting for us in the slip, but we need to clean leaves and debris from the deck and cockpit before we can unload the RV.

Refrigerator

Questeria has an Isotherm marine refrigerator that runs on either 12-volts DC or 110-volts AC. There wasn’t much in it when we left in June, but we left it shut and running. When Questeria was unplugged from shore power, the refrigerator switched to 12-volts. Bruce shut off all the breakers when he left it at the boat yard. It sat there, unpowered, until after Irma. When George brought it back to the marina, we asked him to turn it on.

We check the refrigerator. It has some water, beer and a few non-perishables in it. They are cold, but there is some mold starting to grow, from when it was off. We thoroughly clean it out and wash it with vinegar and hydrogen peroxide.

Watermaker

We have a 12-volt Spectra watermaker. It is set to flush the membrane every five days. This works fine as long as the batteries are charged, the water pump is on, working, and there is water in the tank. The pump was turned off in the boat yard.

We turn on the water pump. The water in the lines is stagnant and the tank is almost empty. We put some water in the tank and flush the lines. Once all the lines are flushed, we flush the watermaker. We see brown water coming out. That can’t be good. We flush it a few more times. We aren’t sure about the water quality in the basin, so we will wait a while before trying it.

We take Questeria out in May, 2018, and anchor in Newfound Harbor — see Sailing, Anchoring and Apparent Wind. One of the reasons for this cruise is to check things out. We try out the watermaker, and it works just fine. When we left the boat for the summer last time, we pickled the watermaker so we didn’t worry about losing power or running out of water.

Solar Panels

In 2003 we installed three 135 watt solar panels. They were mounted on an aluminum frame, which was bolted to the top of the dinghy davits. The entire frame came off and landed in the boat yard.

Parts of the aluminum frame are attached to the dinghy davits. One piece is okay, but the other is severely bent. The rest of the frame and the panels are still at the boatyard.

Solar Panels in Boat Yard
Solar Panels in Boat Yard

We go to dinner at Lazy Days, which is next to the boat yard where Questeria sat for the storm. We see Jules, and ask if we can look for the solar panels. We find them right where Questeria was. It looks like two of the three are undamaged.

Bruce retrieves them the next day. I remove the broken panel and cleanup the rest. I open up the junction boxes on the other two panels, clean out the mud, and clean the contacts. I check them with a meter and they are still generating electricity.

Our plan is to temporarily mount the two panels and wire them to the controller to keep our batteries charged. Eventually we will buy another panel and mount them permanently. I go to Home Depot and buy some aluminum to replace the bent and broken pieces. I also buy some C-clamps to hold the frame in place.

Jury Rigged Solar Panels
Jury Rigged Solar Panels

We put the frame on the dinghy davits and try to line up the bolt holes at the front. It is clear that the stainless-steel dinghy davits are bent. I jury rig it for now, with more C-clamps and a piece of aluminum. I wire them to the controller. The batteries will now keep charged.

Like many things, the temporary fix is still in place — fifteen months later, the two panels are keeping the batteries charged. Originally, we looked at replacing the broken panel with the same kind, but they are no longer available. Also, solar panel technology has come a long way, and there are better solutions available now. We are reluctant to buy one more panel, because when wiring multiple wattage solar panels together, you are limiting them all to the lowest wattage panel. So, we are considering buying all new solar panels. We put this decision on the back-burner for now since we have something that works.

Dock Boxes

We have two dock boxes in front of our slip. We use these as storage for things like acetone, cleaning supplies, painting stuff and spare parts. The most valuable item we left in the dock box was our Honda 2000 generator. When the hurricane was approaching, we called George and asked him to screw down our dock boxes and move our generator to Robert’s shed. One of the dock boxes appeared to be locked, so it didn’t get screwed down. It didn’t really matter because most of the dock boxes that were screwed down came loose in the 1½ feet of water over the top of the docks. George located our dock boxes and put them back where they were.

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One of our dock boxes is filled with stagnant, smelly water. The other dock box is dry, because the holes left from screwing it down allowed water to drain off, but it is full of sand and gravel. Some of the stuff is missing and some is ruined. We salvage what we can, and clean out the water, sand and gravel. The jerry cans are okay, but most of the rest is trash. We are missing two unopened cans of paint, at $85 a piece.

Flooded Vehicles

We left two vehicles parked in front of the marina, a 2004 Chrysler Town & Country and a 1997 Honda Accord. They both were flooded by storm surge. After two weeks, they are still wet inside. We left items in both vehicles. There is a cooler in the minivan that is okay, but the rest, like a suitcase full of clothes, is ruined.

Both vehicles were insured for liability only. Next time if we drop collision, we’ll keep comprehensive.

We look online for someone who will tow flooded cars. We find a couple of places, but they don’t want to deal with older, flooded cars. Someone leaves a card that says “Tow Away Flooded Cars for Free”. We call him.

Flooded Honda and Chrysler
Flooded Honda and Chrysler

He shows up, we sign the titles over to him, and he tows them away. One less thing to worry about. I did forget to deactivate the Sun Passes, so we get charged for tolls on the turnpike.

Water Damage and Mold

Questeria leaked from the day we got her. We have been fighting deck leaks for 12 years. We stop a leak, but then things bend and flex, and start leaking again. We usually leave the air conditioner running and Damp-Rid on board, to help with the humidity. But with the stress of being hauled out, and the massive rains, some wood has started to rot and mold has started to grow. The areas of concern are on the starboard side — the head, galley and laundry room.

Our friend Joe, got back to Marathon before us. He was staying on his boat and thought he was having a heart attack. It turned out he had black mold growing in his lungs — We take mold seriously.

We start in the head. Everything comes out of the cabinet. We throw away the plywood panel and insulation and clean the shelf and walls with vinegar and hydrogen peroxide. We paint the plywood wall between the galley and head with Kilz. We put in new insulation and replace the plywood with FRP board.

We see that most of the water in the head came from the galley. Now we take everything out of the galley cabinets and clean with vinegar and hydrogen peroxide. The water is leaking in through the stanchions.  We must stop the leaks before we put the cabinets back.

We find a procedure for fixing leaking stanchions on the Irwin website. I order some balsam dowels online and follow the procedure. The wood screws are stripped on one of them, so I drill out the hole and fill it with West System Six10 thickened epoxy. (I discover that Six10 doesn’t store forever. It has hardened in the tube, and I have to buy more.) When the epoxy sets, I drill and tap the holes and use machine screws in place of wood screws. When done, I bed the stanchions with butyl tape. I also remove and rebed the sail track.

The front head was converted to a laundry room before we owned Questeria. It has a washer/dryer combo. We also use it for storage. The door is usually closed and it doesn’t leak, so we have not done a lot with it. With all the dampness, it’s time to clean it out.

First, we remove everything from the cabinet and take out the wall and insulation. We take out the washer/dryer and remove the original, ugly, wall paper. We wash everything with vinegar and hydrogen peroxide. We paint the walls with Kilz and the interior paint and caulk the joints. We put everything back. It looks great and smells better.

Bimini Cover

Our bimini cover is damaged. It was in bad shape before Irma, but Irma finished the job. A few years earlier we had a new dodger made that zipped to the bimini. We call the guy that did the dodger, to see about getting a whole new enclosure, minus the dodger. We can’t get him, or anyone else to return our calls. In the meantime, we pin some canvas to cover the larger holes.

Months later, the bimini still is torn, and offers no protection from rain. We are thinking of replacing it with a hard top, but we are still researching how to do this. We decide to take down the torn bimini and patch it until we replace it with something better.

Fifteen Months Later

We spent a lot of time in the RV from November of 2017 to January of 2019. Most of our time on the boat was spent fixing things. We spent a lot of time fixing leaking stanchions, using the balsa dowel method, mentioned earlier in this post. Some of them had to be done more than once to get the leaks stopped. We’ve made some progress with leaks, but we haven’t stopped them all. Our bimini is patched and we are using an old sail cover in place of our damaged Mack Pack. We also replaced leaking port lights and hatches. Sometimes it feels like we take one step forward and two steps back, but in reality, we have made a lot of progress.

It is now 2019, and we are planning to take the RV to Phoenix, AZ, in April, for our son’s wedding. And after than we are planning an Alaska RV trip. This time we will haul the boat while we are away and work on it in the boatyard when we return, in the Fall.

Most of the Keys has recovered from Irma. (However, Winn Dixie has a sign that says “Opening Soon”.) Some of our friends, who had more damage than us, are still working on their boats, others have given up boating. Life continues…

Miscellaneous

Marine Weather Revisited

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When you get to be my age you forget a lot of things. Maybe even before you get to be my age. One of the advantages to having a website/blog is that you can go back and look up things that you wrote about, but have forgotten. A while back I started writing posts about marine weather. The other day I decided to look at weather forecasts and I couldn’t remember some of the things I did before, so I went to the website and looked at my old posts.

I started writing weather posts over three years ago and ended up with eight posts. I can search for “weather” and find all the posts, but I can’t tell what’s in them by reading the title and first few sentences. So, I decided to write a new post which references each one and describes what’s in them. I also went back and updated them.

So here it is…

Weather, Part 1

Part 1 is simply an introduction. I tried to tell the reader what I was planning to write about and why I wanted to write about marine weather.

Weather, Part 2

Part 2 talks about marine weather resources that are available, without getting into details about the resource. These resources include:

  • Marine Weather Faxes (Radiofaxes)
  • Marine Weather Center (Chris Parker)
  • Zone Forecast and Synopsis
  • Area Forecast and Discussion
  • GRIB Files
  • Marine Weather Observations
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Weather, Part 3

Part 3 talks about analyzing marine weather maps, or Radiofaxes. It explains how to get barometric pressure, wind direction and wind speed from a Surface Analysis or Surface Forecast map.

When I first wrote this post, I explained how to calculate wind speed by measuring two distances with a digital micrometer and plugging them into a complicated formula. Looking back at the post, I thought it was very overwhelming. Since the time I wrote that post, I developed a calculator that does the complicated formula.  This calculator is available on my website. You still need to take two measurements, but the rest is easy – just enter three numbers.

Weather, Part 4

This post talks about getting weather with a single sideband receiver while cruising away from cell phone or internet access.

Weather, Part 5

Part 5 talks about the Marine Weather Center, AKA Chris Parker.

Weather, Part 6

Part 6 talks about getting weather faxes (Radiofaxes) using a single sideband receiver.

Weather, Part 7

This post talks about receiving marine weather forecast and synopsis using email.

Weather, Part 8

This post discusses GRIB files.

In Summary

As you can see, I’ve written a lot about marine weather. It is one of my hobbies. Things are always changing and there’s more I can write about. So, check back occasionally.

Cruising, Maintenance

Sailing, Anchoring and Apparent Wind

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We spend all our time here working on Questeria. It’s time we take her out of the slip and enjoy her.  It’s a nice day for a sail. We might go out for a few hours or a few days.

Newfound Harbor

We back out of the slip at around 1:00 PM. It has been a long time since we have been away from the slip. It is a beautiful day on the water.  We head towards Newfound Harbor, at bearing of about 250º T. The wind is light (6-8 knots), out of the NNE. A good direction for sailing to Newfound Harbor.

We put up the sails. This takes a while because our Mack Pack is worn out and we are using our old sail cover. Then the Lazy Jacks get hung up. It is also difficult to stay headed into the wind without a wind instrument. Ours has not worked for over a year now.

We finally get the mainsail up and unfurl the jib. We shut down the engine and sail towards Newfound Harbor at 2-4 knots. We decide to anchor out for at least one night.

At this pace we will make it eventually. We’re not in a hurry, but we would like to get there before dark. We start the engine and motor-sail at 6 knots.

We enter the harbor and anchor near picnic island at 6:30 PM. We check WindFinder to see the weather forecast for the next few days. The winds tomorrow look too light for sailing, but Saturday looks perfect. We’ll stay here and check out our SSB and watermaker, and leave on Saturday.

Checking Things Out

Today’s weather is great for being at anchor. It rains at 1:40 AM, and we have to close up everything. It doesn’t rain for long, and now it’s sunny with a slight breeze.

We haven’t taken Questeria out for almost a year, so we’ll use this opportunity to check out our equipment. We want to check our Single Side Band (SSB) radio, because it doesn’t work well in the slip, surrounded by buildings. We don’t like to run our watermaker at the slip because the filters get clogged.

We send and receive email using the SSB radio. It works great. This verifies both the transmit and receive are working. We also receive some weather faxes.

Radio Fax
Radio Fax

We also try the watermaker. Normally you have to pickle a watermaker that is not being used, otherwise the membrane goes bad. But we have an automatic watermaker that flushes with fresh water every five days. The problem is that the boat was stored for several weeks after hurricane Irma with the batteries turned off. We haven’t tried it since then.

We start it. It gives us an error. We restart it and it doesn’t work at first, but then starts making water at about 7.5 gallons per hour.

Not everything is working. Our rudder stuffing box leaks while underway and our dripless shaft seal is wearing down, and leaks occasionally. Our house batteries are not keeping up like they should. We are down to only two solar panels and the batteries are getting old. We have to run the generator to charge the batteries enough to keep the refrigerator working.

Apparent Wind

We start planning our trip back. We would like to sail if the wind is right.  We look at the forecast on WindFinder and receive a GRIB file for tomorrow and Sunday. NOAA National Weather Service calls for winds from the South, at 10-15 knots, becoming Southwest at 5-10 knots on Saturday and Southwest at 5-10 knots on Sunday. Windfinder shows the wind dying out on Sunday, so we decide to leave on Saturday.

We start discussing our course and the apparent wind. We take out our Maptech ChartKit: Florida East Coast and the Keys. The recommended route shows a course of 79º M. We need true. We can use the conversion on the chart compass rose. It has variation of 4° 30′ in 2003, with an annual increase of 8′.  15*8=120, or 2°, so we have a -6.5° adjustment for a true course of 73°. Another way to get a true heading  is to use the CrowdMag app on our iPhone. It says we have a declination of -6.1° so we need to go 73º T.

Screenshot of CrowdMag
Screenshot of CrowdMag

We discuss the apparent wind that we will have if the forecast is right and I show Fran the Apparent Wind Calculator on www.questeria.info Tools For Cruisers Utilities.

We plug in the numbers and come up with this table.

Hour TWS TWD AWS AWA
5 EDT 9.7 kts 132° 13.4 kts 38°
8 EDT 12.8 kts 155° 14.6 kts 60°
11 EDT 14.1 kts 171° 14.4 kts 76°
14 EDT 11.1 kts 186° 10.3 kts 84°
17 EDT 5.5 kts 215° 3.6 kts 71°

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On Sunday the wind is forecasted to be  Southwest (225°) 5-10 knots. That will give us an Apparent Wind Speed of 3.7 knots and an Apparent Wind Angle of 108°.

We conclude that the wind direction is good either Saturday or Sunday, but the wind speed on Sunday may be too light. We will go on Saturday.

Saturday

We get up and check the weather. Our wind instrument is not working, but it seems stronger than predicted. We check the National Data Buoy Center – Sombrero Key, FL. There is a problem and none of the buoys are reporting. The forecast says the winds are supposed to lay down later. We’ll wait and check the wind later.

It’s 2:00 PM, the buoys are still not reporting and the wind still seems higher than expected. We decide to stay until tomorrow. Tomorrow’s forecast shows winds too light to sail, but it should be fine for motoring.

Sunday

We pull the anchor at 8:30 AM and head out the channel. The wind seems stronger than forecasted. It takes about an hour to get out of the harbor. The winds and seas are higher than expected. The wind is from the south, rather than the southwest, as predicted, and it is higher than the 5-10 knot forecast. Seas are higher than 1 foot and the waves are hitting us on the beam, so we are rocking.

We decide to put up the sails, if only as a stabilizer. It takes a while, because we are rocking so much. We have to secure the loose items and the dinghy. We bring up the main and it helps the rocking immensely. We unfurl the jib, and motor sail at 6 knots, 78º T.

The seas are calming down and the wind is decreasing, and shifting more to the SW, as predicted. At this course, we are afraid we will jibe. We decide to change course to get a better point of sail. We change course to 85º T. We turn off the engine and sail at 4-5 knots.

After about an hour, we do a controlled jibe and change course to 6º T, to head towards our marina. We continue sailing for another 30 minutes. Then we drop our sails and motor into the marina.

HomePort Screenshot
HomePort Screenshot

Here is a screenshot of Garmin HomePort showing our route and track. Notice how we deviated from the route to get a better sail in.

Back in the Slip

We get back to the slip in the afternoon. It was a successful trip. We had a good sail. We found some problems, but most things are working.

Website

Calculators on questeria.info

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Calculators on questeria.info

I am a retired software engineer and this website is one of my hobbies. One day, while boating on the ICW, I wanted to know when I would arrive at a certain mile marker. In my head, I remember that distance = time * speed and derived that time = distance/speed. But my speed is in knots and my distance is in statute miles. So, I need to convert statute miles to nautical miles by dividing by 1.15. I thought it would be nice to have app on my phone and I decided to write it myself.

So, the Distance Time Speed (DTS) calculator was born. After that, I created a Location Distance Bearing (LDB) calculator.

Another hobby of mine is weather, so I created a Wind Speed from Isobars (WS) estimator and True Wind (TW) calculator. Finally, I created an Apparent Wind (AW) calculator.

I created the calculators using HTML and JavaScript. I made them so you can add the calculators to the home screen of your phone or tablet, to use like an app. The calculator is cached to your device for offline use. If a new version is available, you will get popup that says “A new version of this site is available. Load it?”. Click OK to update the calculator on your device.

Apparent Wind Calculator

AW

After I created the True Wind calculator, I wanted to check it with an apparent wind calculator. I looked and couldn’t find anything that did what I needed. Besides checking my True Wind calculator, I thought it would be useful to see if it is possible to sail in a specific direction with a forecasted wind speed and direction. So, I decided to write my own.

There are four parameters needed:

  • True Wind Speed, in knots
  • True Wind Direction, in degrees (true)
  • Boat Speed, in knots
  • Boat Heading, in degrees (true)

Enter the values and press Calculate Apparent Wind and the calculator displays Apparent Wind Speed, in knots and Apparent Wind Angle in degrees.

Distance Time Speed Calculator

DTS

The Distance Time Speed calculator was my first calculator. You can use it as a web page drop down or as a standalone web page. You can add the URL of the standalone web page to your phone or tablet home screen, to use like an app. I wrote the first version in Perl and it ran on the server. Later, I rewrote it in JavaScript, so it runs on your device. It is cached on your device the first time you use it, so you can use it when offline.

The calculator performs several calculations and conversions. There are three parameters, Distance, Time, and Speed. You enter two values to calculate the third. You can convert between Nautical Miles and Statute Miles. You can convert between Knots and Miles Per Hour. You can send the Distance value from this calculator to the Location Distance Bearing calculator.

The calculator uses cookies to remember the last values. The values will stay the same until overwritten or cleared with Reset. After that you only need to change one value to calculate a new value. To calculate a new Time, you change either Speed or Distance. If you want to calculate a new Speed or Distance using the same value of Time, you must blank-out Speed or Distance. To calculate a new Distance, using the same value of Speed you specify a new Time. To calculate a new value of Speed using the same value of time you must blank-out a Speed field.

Convert between Nautical Miles and Statute Miles

Enter a numeric value in Nautical Miles field to convert to Statute Miles, or enter a numeric value in Statute Miles field to convert to Nautical Miles. Press Submit to convert.

Convert between Knots and MPH

Enter a numeric value in Knots field to convert to MPH, or enter a numeric value in MPH field to convert to Knots. Press Submit to convert.

Calculate Time using Distance and Speed
  • Enter Distance in the Nautical Miles or Statute Miles field.
  • Enter Speed in Knots or MPH field.
  • Blank-out Time in HH, MM and SS fields.
  • Press Submit to calculate Time.
Calculate Speed using Distance and Time
  • Enter Distance in Nautical Miles or Statute Miles field.
  • Enter Time as hours, minutes, and seconds in the HH MM and SS fields.
  • Blank-out Speed in Knots and MPH fields.

Press Submit to calculate Speed.

Calculate Distance using Time and Speed
  • Enter Time as hours, minutes, or seconds in the HH MM and SS fields.
  • Enter Speed in Knots or MPH field.
  • Blank-out Distance in Nautical Miles and Statute Miles fields.
  • Press Submit to calculate Distance.
Send to Location Distance Bearing Calculator

Click Send to Loc Dist Brg Calc to bring up the Location Distance Bearing Calculator with the Nautical Miles value from this calculator.

Location Distance Bearing Calculator

LDBThe Location Distance Bearing Calculator was the second calculator that I created. You can use it as a web page drop down or as a standalone web page. I wanted to calculate the distance and bearing between two locations or find a location using a distance and bearing from a location. Later, I added the ability to Set Current Location from the device and display/convert different formats of latitude and longitude.

I designed this calculator to use with the Distance Time Speed calculator so you can easily calculate time or speed between two locations.

It uses cookies to remember the last values. The values will stay the same until overwritten or cleared with Reset. After that you only need to change one value to calculate or convert values. To calculate new Distance and Bearing values using one of the same locations change the other Latitude or Longitude value. To calculate new Location 2 values, change a value of NM, Feet or Bearing. Blank-out the Location 1 Latitude and Longitude values to calculate new Location 1 values.

You can send the distance value to the Distance Time Speed Calculator.

You can enter Latitude and Longitude values in many formats. You can copy and paste from other programs such as Google Earth.

This calculator loads to your device for offline use. You can add it to the home screen of your phone or tablet and use it like an app.

Set Current Location

Press Set Current Location to set Location 1 to current position. You might get a prompt saying “http://questeria.info” Would Like To Use Your Current Location. If so, click OK.

Note: Set Current Location requires the calculator be a secure page. If you don’t see a Set Current Location button, try accessing the page from https://questeria.info/ldb/index.html. Location services must also be enabled and supported by the device.

Calculate Distance and Bearing using two Locations
  • Enter Location 1 Latitude. You can enter it as a raw number (positive is North, negative is South) or in N or S degrees minutes (Ndd mm.mmm) or N or S degrees minutes seconds (Ndd mm ss.ss). Leave a space between degrees, minutes and seconds. You can also paste in a location like Ndd°mm’ss” from another application, or even a latitude/longitude pair like, 28°34′15″ N 83°11′41″ W.
  • Enter location 1 Longitude. This is like entering latitude, except that East is positive and West is negative.
  • Enter Location 2 Latitude
  • Enter Location 2 Longitude
  • Blank-out NM, Feet and Bearing fields.
  • press Submit to calculate distance and bearing.
Calculate Location using Distance and Bearing
  • Enter a latitude in Location 1 or Location 2.
  • Enter a longitude in Location 1 or Location 2.
  • Blank-out the Latitude and Longitude fields you want to calculate.
  • Enter a distance in NM or Feet, and blank-out the other field.
  • Enter a Bearing.
  • Press Submit to calculate Location 1 or 2.
Swap Locations 1 and 2

Press Swap to swap Location 1 and Location 2. This is useful when you want to set Location 2 to the last current location before getting your new current location.

Convert between Nautical Miles and Feet

Enter a numeric value in NM field to convert to Feet, or enter a numeric value in Feet field to convert to Nautical Miles.

Convert between Lat/Lon formats
  • Enter latitude and/or longitude into Location 1 and/or Location 2 in any valid format.
  • Select one of three Lat/Lon formats:
    • dd mm.mmm (Degrees and Minutes)
    • dd mm ss (Degrees, Minutes and Seconds)
    • dd.ddddd (Decimal Degrees, E and N are positive, S and W are negative)
  • Press Submit to display Location 1 and Location 2 in the selected format.
Send to Distance Time Speed Calculator

Press Send to Dist Time Speed Calculator to pass the Nautical Miles value to the Distance, Time and Speed calculator.

True Wind Calculator

TWI created the True Wind Calculator after reading Modern Marine Weather: From Time Honored Maritime Traditions to the Latest Technology, by David Burch. You use it when you want to calculate true wind while moving. Some wind instruments can do this automatically if connected to a GPS to measure boat speed and boat heading. Use this if you want to watch true wind and yours doesn’t.

There are four parameters needed:

  • Apparent Wind Speed, in knots
  • Apparent Wind Angle, in degrees
  • Boat Speed, in knots
  • Boat Heading, in degrees (true).

The calculator gives you True Wind Speed, in knots and True Wind Direction, in degrees (true).

Estimate Wind Speed from Isobars

WS
The Wind Speed from Isobars estimator is another calculator I created after reading Modern Marine Weather: From Time Honored Maritime Traditions to the Latest Technology, by David Burch.

This estimator estimates wind speed using isobar spacing, from a weather map or fax. I use a digital micrometer to measure the distance on my Android tablet.

To use the Wind Speed Estimator:

  • Enter the Isobar Space. This is the space between isobar lines on a weather map or fax. The units of measurement are unimportant as long as they are the same units of measurement used for Latitude Space. (I use a digital micrometer.)
  • Enter the Latitude Space. This is the space between latitude lines. Use the same unit of measurement used for Isobar Space.
  • Enter the Latitude in degrees, to a tenth, such as, 24.4.
  • Enter the Number of Isobars. This is the number of isobars between isobar lines on the map. It is usually 4, but sometimes it is 2.
  • Enter the Number of Degrees. This is the number of degrees between latitude lines on the map. It is usually 10, but sometimes 5.
  • Select an air mass stability. The default is average.
    Air Mass Satellite photos Sea – air temperature difference (F°)
    very unstable cloud sheets >+8°
    unstable cell clusters +4° to +8°
    average stratus 0 to +4°
    stable surface obscured -4° to 0
    very stable low fog or stratus <-4°

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    The estimator determines surface winds from a balance between pressure gradients, Coriolis forces and frictional drag on the surface—a factor that depends on the air stability. If you have reason to believe the air mass is more or less stable than average, you can specify it with this option. Generally, air within a High or within the warm sector of a frontal wave is stable, which would lead to less wind speed for the same gradient.

  • Press the Estimate Wind Speed button (or press enter) to display wind speed.

This application is cached in your device so you can run it when you are not connected to the internet. You can also add it to the home screen of your phone or tablet for easy access.

Note: This estimator assumes straight isobars.

Isobar Curvature Correction

V²/R Correction
<25 none
25-50 5%
50-100 10%
100-200 15%
200-300 20%
300-400 25%
400-600 30%
600-1000 40%
1000-1500 50%
>1500 60%

The estimator assumes straight isobars. You can use the above table to account for centrifugal force. V is the wind speed, in knots, from the estimator and R is the radius of the curve in degrees of latitude. Calculate the ratio V²/R to find the correction factor. The correction diminishes winds around a low, and increases winds around a high.

From Modern Marine Weather: From Time Honored Maritime Traditions to the Latest Technology, 2nd Edition by David Burch

Using the Calculators

These calculators can be used on a phone, tablet or computer. I mostly use them on my iPhone. To set them up the first time, go to the Utilities page and click on each link. Add it to your home screen. On iOS, click the square with the up arrow on the bottom of the screen, and then click Add to Home Screen. On Android click the three dots in the upper right side of the screen, and then click Add to Home screen.  A clickable icon is added to your home screen. The calculator is loaded on your device, so you can use it even when offline. If there is an update to the calculator, you will get a message asking if you want to load it.

Calculator Folder on iPhone
Calculator Folder on iPhone

I group all five calculators in a folder. To create a folder on iOS or Android, press and hold an icon and move it onto another icon. Then press and hold each icon and move it onto the folder. Now I can quickly open my folder and open a calculator on my phone.

RVing

February Road Trip – Part 3

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Our February road trip started out with plans to visit Gary and Ellen in Gulf Shores, AL. Then we get invited to Shannon’s birthday party in Wilmington, NC and it becomes a month-long trip. In Part 1 I talk about Ortona South ACE and Manatee Springs SP campgrounds and in Part 2 I talk about Gulf Shores, AL and Gulf Island National Park. In this part I talk about St. George Island SP, North Carolina, Charleston, SC and our trip back to Marathon.

St. George Island State Park

There are two ways we like oysters… raw and cooked. Apalachicola is famous for oysters. Since we are near Apalachicola, we might as well stop there.

The rain at Fort Pickens National Park lets up enough to put everything away, although still wet. We dump black and gray water, fill freshwater to 1/3, attach our toad and leave by 9:40 CT. We stop once for gas and get to St. George Island State Park by 3:30 ET.

Dr. Julian G. Bruce St. George Island State Park is at the eastern side of St. George Island. When we first booked it, there was only one night available. Later,  we booked the second night at a different site. After we decided to go to NC, we booked a third night at another site.

St. George Island State Park
St. George Island State Park

We get to St. George Island State Park. The ranger changes us to a site that is available for two nights. This is a beautiful place, with nice sandy beaches on the Gulf of Mexico. We have a huge site with electric and water. We can walk across to the beach or hike on trails by the sound side of the island.

We need groceries and today is Fat Tuesday. Since we have to go to the store anyway, we decide to make jambalaya on the Coleman stove. The closest store is Piggly Wiggly Express. It’s pretty small and doesn’t have a large selection. We buy some items and go across the street to SGI Fresh Market. This store is no better, but they do have andouille sausage. We go across the bridge to Big Top. They don’t have what we need either.

We go to Lynn’s Quality Oysters to buy oysters and mussels. They only have shucked oysters and no mussels. We drive 13 miles into Apalachicola. They have no oysters but we buy frozen mussels.

We go to Hole in the Wall Seafood for lunch. This place is small, and very busy. We have raw oysters and seafood gumbo. The food is great, the service is just okay and the cleanliness is questionable.

We go back to Piggly Wiggly Express to get the remaining items. This is the best of the three grocery stores in the area.

We drive back to the campground, take a walk on the beach and cook jambalaya.

Jambalaya & Bread on Coleman Stove
Jambalaya & Bread Cooked on Coleman Stove

Today is Valentine’s Day. We move to site 4. Then we go to Lynn’s Quality Oysters for lunch. We have raw oysters. They are delicious. The steamed shrimp is slightly overcooked. the service is great and the people are friendly.

Walk on the Beach
Walk on the Beach

We walk on the trail and the beach. We have salmon with spice rub, grilled on a cedar plank and mussels.

North Carolina

We leave St. George Island after dumping black and gray water, and attaching the toad. We stop at Cracker Barrel in SC for the night.

We have breakfast at Cracker Barrel. We are underway at 8:10, stop at a Flying J for gas and propane, and get to the Wilmington Elks lodge at 1:00 PM. It costs $75 for three nights, with water and electric. Sewer is available on-site.

We go to the laundromat and wash sheets, towels and clothes. We visit the kids and grandkids. We go to Shannon’s birthday party and oyster roast on Saturday and visit on Sunday. On Monday we go to the grocery store, dump the black and gray water and attach the Honda CR-V. We drive to James’s in Ernul.

The next few days we work on the RV. We wash and wax it. We fix the leak in the bathroom vent. We also order a new motor for the steps.  It’s $164 on Amazon.com. The steps have not worked for the past week. We replace the motor and they work.

Charleston, SC

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We drive to the Low Down Oven and Bar for dinner. We have beer, cornbread and pizza. We meet some friendly people, both local and visiting.

The next morning we take the shuttle downtown for $10 per person, round trip. We have breakfast at Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit. Very Good! Then we go or a self-guided tour of the Aiken Rhett House. Very interesting. Next, we stop at The Brick for Bloody Marys.

We walk to the waterfront and have lunch at Fleet Landing. We share shrimp & grits and crab cakes. Great food and service. We even get to watch dolphins playing in the water.

We walk some more and it starts to rain. We go to Low Country Bistro to get out of the rain, and have a couple of beers. The staff is very friendly. We don’t have any food, but I’m sure it is great.

We ride the shuttle back to the campground and pay for another night.

Today we want to see the Angel Oak tree and Folly Beach.

The Angel Oak Tree is on John’s Island. It is the largest tree east of the Mississippi River.

Angel Oak Tree
Angel Oak Tree

After that we drive to Folly Beach. Our first order of business is to find a place for lunch. After driving around, we find Washout. Food and service are good. The staff is super friendly.

We drive around the island. We go to the county park, where we can park for free with our campground receipt, but it is too cold and windy to enjoy the beach today.

Return to Marathon

Our February road trip is almost over, but we want to make one more stop to clean the RV and get it ready to put back in storage. We book a night at C. B. Smith Park. This is a Broward county park in Pembroke Pines, FL.

Moonrise at CB Smith Campground
Moonrise at CB Smith Campground

This campground is in a good location for us. We arrive in the early afternoon and have a short distance (115 miles) back to Marathon. We can easily time it to not hit Miami peak rush hour traffic. The site is full hook-up, so we have extra time to empty and flush our black and gray water tanks.

The next day we clean the RV, dump the tanks and pack our things to take off the RV. We hook up the Honda CR-V to the towbar and leave the campground at 11:30 to drive to Marathon. We make an expensive mistake.

When we tow the Honda CR-V behind the RV, we use a Patriot Braking System, from Blue Ox. The braking system sits on the CR-V’s floor, in front of the driver’s seat, and attaches to the brake pedal. It senses when the RV is braking and pushes on the brake pedal to brake the tow car. In addition, it has a break-away sensor that will apply the brake if the tow car comes loose from the RV. The braking system in the tow car wirelessly connects to a control panel in the RV. The control panel plus into a 12v, accessory outlet. We don’t have enough 12v accessory outlets for everything. The braking system works without the control panel, so we have not been plugging it in.

We get to the place where we store the RV at 2:15. We get out to unhook the tow car. The braking system says it is break-away mode and it is pressing on the brake pedal. We don’t know how long it has been in break-away mode, but the brake lights have been on long enough to kill the battery.

We jump-start the car and unhook it. The brakes are not good. We have to replace the rear rotors and pads ($424). That will be the last time we tow a car without plugging in the braking system control panel.

In Conclusion

It has been a good trip. We left on January 31 and got home on March 2. We got to spend time with our very good friends, Gary and Ellen and time with some of our family. In the process, we got to explore some areas of Florida, our home state, and Alabama that we hadn’t seen before.

Maintenance

Fixed Portlights

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The fixed portlights were in bad shape when we bought Questeria in 2005. The polycarbonate was crazed, almost opaque, and starting to crack. We replaced them in 2009. Nine years later, they need to be replaced again. They are cloudy, cracked and leak.

We’ve learned a lot since the first time we replaced them and looked  for a better method.

First Fixed Portlight Replacement

The 1976 Irwin 37cc has four fixed portlights. In 2009, we ordered bronze polycarbonate online, enough to do the portlights and two hatches. First, we traced the patterns on paper. Then we cut new panes on a bandsaw using the patterns. We used a drum sander on a drill press to clean up the edges.

The original fixed portlights were bronze polycarbonate and were glued into recessed openings on the cabin sides. They weren’t easily removed. We got them out by hammering and prying. they came out in pieces. Some of the gel coat, where they were glued, came out as well.

Opening for Fixed Portlight
Opening for Fixed Portlight

We removed one portlight at a time and cleaned up the opening. We used a rasp and file to make the new pane fit as tightly as possible.

Ready to Install
Ready to Install

We didn’t know how to glue the new panes in, so we decided to screw them in.  We drilled holes every few inches. We caulked the new windows with 3M 4000 and screwed them down.

Installing New Pane
Installing New Pane

They looked great when we finished, but over the years they clouded up. They also started to crack around the screw holes and would leak when it rained. We tried rebedding them with butyl tape but that didn’t last either.  We decided it was time to replace them.

2009 Portlight Installed
2009 Portlight Installed

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Second Fixed Portlight Replacement

We needed to find a better way than screws. We found this article online: DIY: Replacing Fixed Portlights. It talks about framed installation and surface mounting. Neither one was exactly our scenario, but it gave an idea – using double-sided tape. Our idea was to cut the panes so we would have an 1/8″ gap between the pane and the opening. Then we would use double-sided tape to fasten it in place and seal the gap with silicone sealant. We used 3M 1/4″ exterior attachment tape (38583) and Dow Corning 795 silicone building sealant – white.

We ordered a 48 inch x 96 inch x .220 inch sheet of bronze Lexan from Home Depot online store. This was more than we needed, but it was the only size big enough, and we could have it shipped for free to the Home Depot store near us. This gave us enough extra to do the hatches and have some left over.

The Lexan comes with protective coating on both sides. We left this on until the pane was installed. We started by cutting it into manageable sized pieces with a circular saw.

We did one portlight at a time. We unscrewed the old pane and removed the butyl tape/caulk. We used the old pane as a pattern and did the final cut on a band saw. We finished with a sander, rasp and file, until there was an even 1/8″ gap around the pane.

One Down, Three to go.
One Down, Three to Go

We repaired the opening and filled in the screw holes with West System G/Flex, and then sanded the surfaces.

Portlight Opening
Portlight Opening

Once the pane was fitted and the opening surface was ready, we trimmed the protective coating from the inside edge of the pane, by holding it in place and cutting around from the inside with an Exacto knife. Then we stuck the double-sided tape around the pane. We pressed the window in place using 1/8″ shims to keep the gap even. We filled the gaps with silicone and removed the protective coating.

Finished Portlights
Finished Portlights

We are very happy with the results. Hopefully they will last another nine-plus years.

RVing

February Road Trip – Part 2

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Our February road trip started out with plans to visit Gary and Ellen in Gulf Shores, AL. In February Road Trip – Part 1, I talk about our stops on the way there. In this part I talk about Gulf Shores, AL and Gulf Island National Park.

Gulf State Park

We get up early to get a good head start. We did as much as we could last night to be ready to leave. We drive to the day-use parking lot and hook up the tow car. We don’t need to dump because we have a full hook-up site tonight.

We stop at a Flying J for gas. It has two RV lanes. There is an RV filling up in one and a small pick-up truck in the other. I get behind the pick-up truck. This is the wrong choice. He’s not there. He went inside to use the bathroom, and is waiting in line to buy a Pepsi and then pumps his gas. We can’t back up because we have the tow car. We wait about 30 minutes, and now have to pump gas in the rain.

We get to Gulf State Park at 1:30. We crossed over into Central Time Zone, so we gained an hour. Check-out here is 2:00, so we have to wait while they make sure our site is empty. We disconnect our Honda while we wait.

We back into our site, and it feels more like a neighborhood than an RV park. All the roads are paved with paved sites and neat lawns. Camping here gives you free access to the fishing pier and free parking on the beach. There are many trails here for walking and biking.

We drive to Publix, get some appetizers, and head to Gary & Ellen’s beach house for sloppy Joes and Super Bowl.

We are in this site for only one night. We move the RV to our next site and walk around the park. We visit the nature center and then hike on some trails.

Gulf State Park
Gulf State Park

We go Walmart, and then to Gary and Ellen’s for happy hour. We go to the Crazy Cajun for dinner, but there are no customers so we go to the Oyster House instead. We have Oysters on the half shell, fried crab claws, flounder and popcorn shrimp. The food is good, but a little pricey.

The next day we go to the Farmers’ and Fishermen’s  Market in Foley with Gary and Ellen. We buy shrimp, salmon, oranges, eggs, cabbage and honey. We go to lunch at Wolf Bay Lodge. We get shrimp and grits, sweet tea, and salad bar for $10 each. Excellent.

We walk to the end of the fishing pier. Then Gary and Ellen come to the RV for happy hour.

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FloraBama
FloraBama

Gary and Ellen come to the RV and we cook hamburgers on the grill.

On Thursday we go to Publix and then to Gary and Ellen’s to do laundry. We visit and eat chili. It has been a great visit.

Fort Pickens

We have three nights reserved in Fort Pickens Campground in Gulf Islands National Seashore. It’s only an hour and a half from Gulf Shores, but we feel lucky that we found a site for the weekend. We leave Gulf State Park at 10:35 and get to Fort Pickens at 12:35. We have to cross a toll bridge. It is $1 on our Sun Pass. Once you get to the park entrance it’s about three miles to campground registration, then another mile to the campground.

Fort Pickens Campground
Fort Pickens Campground

Our site is small. The roads and pads are asphalt, and are surrounded by sand and grass. We back in as far to the left as possible so we can put out our awning without hitting trees. We back in as far as possible so we have room to park the Honda.

Armadillo
Armadillo

We go for a walk around the campground. We see armadillos digging in the dirt. We walk on the Florida National Scenic Trail to the fort and look around.

The next day we drive to Peg Leg Pete’s for lunch. This is a very busy restaurant. We have oysters, shrimp and gumbo. Very good. We drive into town, to Joe Patti’s seafood market and buy grouper and oysters. We take our seafood back to the RV and walk on the beaches. First, the gulf, then the sound. We make blackened grouper for dinner. Excellent!

It starts raining and rains all through the night and next day. No good for outside activities. The rain put a damper on our weekend. This is a really neat place and we have to come back again.

RVing

February Road Trip – Part 1

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When we found out our friends, Gary and Ellen, rented a house in Gulf Shores, AL for the month of February, we looked for a nearby campground. Gulf State Park is just down the street. Despite having 496 sites, there were no sites for a full week, or even three consecutive days. We did find five days in three different sites starting on Sunday.

Gulf Shores is about 814 miles from Marathon, so we decided to stop twice on the way. We booked two nights at Ortona South Campground, an Army Corps of Engineers park in Moore Haven, FL, and two nights at Manatee Springs State Park, in Chiefland, FL. We estimated that the first leg would take four hours, the second leg would take five hours and the last leg would take six and a half hours.

Ortona South

The day before our trip, we go to the RV to turn on the refrigerator and load some stuff. We disconnect the chassis battery when in storage, so we connect it and try to start the engine. It doesn’t crank. It won’t even jump-start. The battery is only year and a half old. We bought it at Walmart. We go to NAPA and buy a new battery for $161. We install it and it starts right up. The steps are not working again and the leveling jacks are giving us an alarm. We reset the leveling control panel.

We pick up the RV the next day at 9:00. Fran has a hair appointment so we drive to Winn Dixie parking lot.

After her appointment, we hook up the Honda CRV and take off. We stop at a service plaza, on the turnpike, and get to the Ortona South Army Corps of Engineers’ campground at about 5:00.

Ortona South Lock and Dam
Ortona South Lock and Dam

This is a very nice campground. It has 51 sites, with concrete pads that are large and spread out. It’s quiet and far from the main road. In fact, we thought we were in the wrong place when we turned in, because we could not see the campground. The campground is on the Caloosahatchee River. There are some nice trails to walk, you can fish and watch boats go through the lock towards Lake Okeechobee, or the Gulf of Mexico.

Ortona South Campground
Ortona South Campground

The camp host tells us that the water here is very hard. We hook up our On the Go water softener, but we don’t put any in our tank.
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The next day we cook breakfast outside, and walk around the park and watch boats go through the lock. I clean the electrical contacts for the steps and they are now working again. We have a nice campfire in the evening.

Manatee Springs State Park

Then next day we drive to the dump station and dump our black and grey water. We hook the Honda to the tow bar and leave at 9:10. The GPS suggests two routes. We take the second choice, which is shorter distance, but one minute longer. It takes longer because of all traffic lights.

Manatee Springs State Park
Manatee Springs State Park

We get to Manatee Spring State Park around 3:30. We walk around the park. There is a place that sells barbecue they smoke themselves. We buy a half chicken and a rack of ribs ala-carte and bring it back to the RV for later. Then we walk around and see some manatees. These are small compared to what we are used to seeing in the keys. We go to Walmart, we buy stuff to make cole slaw, because the cole slaw at the barbecue place is too sweet for our tastes.

Deer in Manatee Springs State Park
Deer in Manatee Springs State Park

This is a very busy campground. They have 92 sites, which are full. The sites are sand. We have a back-in site with 30 amp electric and water. The water spigot leaks, so we fill our water tank and turn it off. The Verizon wireless signal strength here is low. It’s good for text messages, but not phone calls or internet.

There are lots of trails here. We hike on the scenic trail, with a self-guided tour, about three and a half miles. We walk around the campground and see lots of deer. They are not afraid of us. We have a nice campfire.

Tomorrow we drive to Gulf Springs, AL.

RVing

Garmin RV 770-LMT-S GPS

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We bought ourselves a Garmin RV 770-LMT-S GPS for a late Christmas present. We wanted it for both route planning and navigation on the RV. We decided on this unit for a number of reasons.

At first we used Google Maps on the RV. We use Google Maps all the time when driving our car, but for RVing it has some shortcomings. It doesn’t work without internet, it underestimates driving time and it routes us in ways that are not ideal for a 31′, class A motorhome. Then we started using Good Sam’s Trip Planner for route planning. This was an improvement over Google Maps. It gave us more accurate driving time estimates, but it still required internet and didn’t provide any navigation capability.

We read some articles to see what other RVer’s used. We found several options out there. There is a Good Sam’s GPS and a Rand McNally GPS that work with the Good Sam’s Trip Planner. There is also a Garmin GPS for RVs. It works with a trip planner called Base Camp, that does not need internet to work. We use Garmin products on our sailboat, Questeria, so Garmin seemed like it might be less of a learning curve.

All the products we looked at seemed to be missing features that RVer’s think are important. Then we saw that Garmin would soon release a new product, called RV LMT-770-S, that includes some of these features. We decided that that was the one we wanted.

On February 20, 2017, the RV 770-LMT-S GPS was not available, but they were taking pre-orders.  We ordered ours from The GPS Store for $399.99. We received it on March 24. In the meantime, we downloaded Garmin BaseCamp, but it is not useful unless attached to a GPS.

The GPS arrived on March 24. We updated the software and maps by attaching it to the computer USB port. After that, we created a vehicle profile for the RV. It was pretty straight forward.

We were already deep into planning our summer RV trip when we got our new GPS.  (See our page Summer 2017). We wanted to transfer the information to the GPS. We looked to see if we could export the data from Good Sam’s Trip Planner directly, but it wouldn’t work with Garmin. We ended up redoing it from scratch on the Garmin. Much to my surprise, I found it easier to do our planning right on the GPS than on the BaseCamp, PC software.

Features of Garmin RV 770-LMT-S

The GPS has all the features you expect. You can find places by name, address, type or coordinates. It will route you based on your preferences and vehicle profile. For example, it won’t route you under bridges lower than your RV height.

Where To?

The GPS has a database of locations such as restaurants, gas stations, attractions, shopping, rest areas, etc. It also has RV parks and RV services. You can find your destination in many ways. Most of the time we search for things by category and name. In the rare case where it doesn’t know the name, we specify an address. You can also look up Saved and Recent places.

Updates

The GPS includes free map and software updates. You can update by connecting to a WiFi network or a computer USB port. When connected to the computer, you use an app called Garmin Express to update. It’s all automated. If connected to WiFi, you go to Settings, and Updates.

Bluetooth

You can connect your phone to the GPS through Bluetooth. Once connected, you can make phone calls and get notifications on your GPS. You can even get live traffic updates using the Garmin Smart Link app on your phone. On a recent trip to Delray Beach, the GPS rerouted us because of lane closures on the FL turnpike. That worked out great.

Driver Assistance Alerts

The GPS has customizable Driver Assistance. You can be alerted to things like speed limit changes, schools, curves, steep hills, etc. You can also set a Fatigue Warning, which will suggest stops after driving for over two hours without stopping.

Trip Planner

We use the Trip Planner feature a lot. You start by adding a start location and destination. It calculates a route, which includes fairly accurate distances and driving times. You can then add locations in between and it will keep calculating distances and driving times.

Map Display

When driving, and following a route on the GPS, it will alert you to a number of things, like speed limit changes, school zone, sharp curves and steep grades. It also shows your speed, the speed limit and highlights it in red when you are exceeding it. It shows you arrival time, distance to your next turn and which way to turn. When you get to an area where lanes split, it will tell you which lane to be in and highlights it on the side of the display. It also shows notifications from your phone, like text messages and phone calls.

A voice tells you about turns and which lanes to be in as well. It’s simple, specific and easy to follow. For example, it might say “Be in the second to the right lane.” or “Turn right at the end of the road.”.

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Voice Commands

The GPS accepts voice commands. You can do just about anything using voice commands. This works well if there is no background noise, but if there is a lot of road noise it doesn’t always work.

BaseCamp

We downloaded and installed Garmin BaseCamp on our PC. This app is very much like Garmin HomePort, which we use for nautical routing and navigation. You must attach the Garmin GPS to the computer with a USB cable to use the app. It uses the detailed map from the GPS, but does its own routing, which is slightly different from the GPS. It has a trip planner tool, but We found it harder to use than the trip planner tool on the GPS itself.

One feature I like about this app is the ability to read the tracks from the GPS, store them on my computer and see where we have been on Google Earth.

Installation

There is nothing to installing the GPS. It comes with a 12 volt plug that plugs into the RV dash. We tried using it with a splitter, but had problems the splitter falling out and the GPS powering-down while I was driving. The GPS comes with a stick-on mounting bracket,  that didn’t work for us on the RV. We bought a Garmin Portable Friction Mount. That works well for us.

Experiences

We have been using the Garmin RV 770-LMT-S GPS for almost a year now and our overall experience has been great. We usually double-check it with Google Maps and most of the time it routes us the same or better. Google Maps is better at routing us around detours or traffic, but doesn’t consider that we are driving an RV.

Propane

One of the features of the RV 770-LMT-S is to add propane tanks to your vehicle profile. Having propane will restrict some of your routes. On some roads you must turn off your propane tank and others don’t allow propane at all.

When we planned our Summer 2017 trip, we planned to cross the Chesapeake bridge/tunnel. There is a restriction that you must turn your propane tank off. At first, we did not add a propane tank to our vehicle profile, and when we put our trip plans on the GPS everything looked good. Later, after we added our propane tank to the profile, the GPS refused to route us over the bridge. We had to remove the propane tank from our vehicle profile to get it route us correctly. Refer to page North Carolina-Maine, Lauren, DE for more details.

We continued on to New Jersey without changing our vehicle profile back to have propane. We added it back before we left the RV park. The route we were following had restrictions that you must turn off your propane. The minute we left the RV park, we got a notification to Shut Off Propane. We stopped in the road, got out and turned the propane tank off. The problem is that there is no way to tell the GPS that the propane tank is turned off. It continued to notify us to Shut Off Propane until we got to CT. Even worse, was that it told us to get off the interstate and take busy city streets around tunnels. Refer to page North Carolina-Maine, New York, NY, Day 5 for more details.

The propane issue is the biggest flaw in the RV LMT-S GPS. There needs to be a setting that says your propane tank is shut off. The only way we found to get around this is to  remove the propane from your vehicle profile and/or turn off the Shut Off Propane notification in Audible Driver Alerts. This doesn’t distinguish between restrictions of no propane and propane must be off.

GPS Hangs up on Notifications

This problem may have been related to the multiple propane notifications, since it happened right after that. On our way to Hingham, MA we were notified of a Sharp Curve Ahead. Instead of popping up and going away, it stayed on the screen for the rest of the trip. The GPS continued to route us, but we didn’t get any notifications of upcoming turns or speed limit changes, etc. We haven’t seen the problem after that.

Routing and Navigation Problems

The RV 770 LMT-S GPS is pretty good, but not always perfect. Sometimes it does not route correctly and we have ignore it. It could not route us into Wompatuck State Park, in Hingham MA, but neither could Google Maps. The problem is that some of the park entrances were closed to vehicle traffic. Even Uber and Taxi drivers had problems. We used directions on their website.

Another time, on the way to Ute Lake State Park, in Logan, NM, It told us to turn right when there was nowhere to turn. Then it routed us way out of the way to turn around. That time we used Google Maps and the directions on their website.

We have also seen where the GPS does not know about some back country roads. This happened in Ernul, NC where we are familiar with different roads.

Summary

We are happy with our purchase. I wish it had an option to say the propane tank is off. Another feature that would be nice is a notification if you exceed your maximum speed. I have set our to 65 mph because we are not supposed to tow our Honda CR-V any fast than that. But otherwise it does everything we need.