TripSailor.com® Sailing Blogs

Leaving Preveza I always follow the three sets of channel markers to make sure that I am well clear of the shallows before I turn on to the course for our next waypoint.

Today we are heading south towards the Levkas Canal and the swing bridge, which I know from previous trips will open each hour on the hour (or thereabouts!) if the bridge-keeper sees one or more boats waiting.

My little Garmin 76CX hand-held GPS with in-built chart display, raises the skipper’s eyebrows, as I lay her on course for the entrance.

He has a full blown chart-plotter down below but his distrust of electronic navigation doesn’t really stem from a distrust of the concept, more from a techno-phobe mind that doesn’t really understand how to use it…

After many trips to the Ionian I have many of the local navigation points loaded as waypoints and most of the hazards as proximity alarms. I don’t rely on the GPS it just acts as a simple way to check the course and remind me of things that may slip my memory. It is also waterproof which makes it easy to compare what you can see with what appears on the charts.