Has anyone else thought about using Google's Gmaps Pedometer for rough planning?

[Tom Stormcrowe]

Just curious, because I just tried it for rough planning a potential coasthop from Michigan City, IN to Mackinac City, and it seems like while it's a bit clunky, and not really suitable for navigation, it'd help in a pinch.

Among other things, coasthopping in Lake Michigan, chances are good you'll have net access with even a 3G or 4G Aircard or smartphone or tablet. Since you can plot your position even with handheld GPS or using a sunsight or starsight set with a sextant for your coordinates, and enter those numbers and get a far larger display than your tiny handheld's screen on your laptop or tablet or a backup to paper using your iPhone or Android device.

You can also run a line plot using the recording function to see a broad trend, at least. Just use the straight line function and save, and you can go back and edit to add further line plot. It wouldn't be my first option, but I'm just trying to think of alternative solutions for a FUBAR occurring of some sort. I realize I may well be reinventing the wheel, here, I'm actually more interested in if my thinking is at least valid for limited or emergency purposes?

[Tom Stormcrowe]

I take it I asked a dumb question, huh? OK, no worries.

[Duke 48]

IMO Not a dumb question. Just something I had never thought of trying.

[martinjrichter]

Seems to me Google Earth is a great planning tool. You can define way points and get the lat/lon for each which can be transferred to to other software as needed. Also if you are clever, the heading is shown from way point to way point.

But most importantly you can zoom in on an inlet and clearly see the channel and obstacles/hazards. If you can see white water I would assume it is a potential hazard to be checked out on the nav charts.