Learn how to better use your GPS
The Golden Corner Lakes Sail & Power Squadron will be offering a seminar on the practical usage of a Global Positioning System (GPS) on Saturday, 21 February 2009 at the Western Carolina Sailing Club on West Way in Anderson, SC. The time will be 13:00 until 17:00 hrs.
Have you ever wished that you had the rhumb lines of all the more or less standard racecourses available on board at your fingertips? Have you ever hesitated to just take off toward the dam, but been afraid that you might be stuck having to pick your way back to the club in the pitch black dark of night? What if you drop something or someone overboard, could you find your way back to the spot in the confusion of coming about? Are you planning an excursion to some locale that you have never visited before and want to get there avoiding rocks, shoals, and other impediments and without having to keep your nose glued to a chart for the entire trip there and back? If any of these questions apply to you, then the solution to problem is at hand.
This seminar will help you with the day-to-day operations of a GPS unit such as creating routes, establishing waypoints, backtracking, and obstacle avoidance. Emphasis will be on Garmin products, but the processes will be applicable to all manufacturers. Bring your GPS with you, as this is a hands-on seminar.
Attendance is open to USPS, WCSC members and then to the public subject to the 25 student limit. There will be a $5.00/person charge to cover the costs of materials. Any non-member of either USPS or WCSC who wishes to attend the seminar may do so for a $30.00 enrollment fee. A textbook on GPS operations is available for an additional $25.00. The textbook is not required in order to get full benefit from the seminar, but you may wish to purchase one for future review and reference.
To make your reservation by Feb 5 by contacting Ed Lashley at “lashleye@nctv.com” or AG Caldwell at agcaldwell@bellsouth.net” and let them know so that the necessary purchase orders can be placed in time to get the materials here to hand out at the seminar. The seminar will begin at 1300 hrs and to end at 1700 hrs. The instructors are based on Lake Hartwell and Lake Keowee and are highly skilled in the applications of the GPS systems.
This seminar is planned as the first of three or more boating seminars to be offered by the GCL USPS at WCSC this season. Future topics can be such as: Boating in Congested Conditions, Anchoring, Knots, On Board Weather Forecasting, Paddling, etc.
Ed Lashley