Way Points

[Alec H]

I once held a CG six pack; so a bit embarrassed to ask this. My boat has a GPS, touch screen plotter. It's a charter boat I use a few week a year; so I've never seen the manual for the plotter. How do I use the way points I see in the cruising guides? Would I create the waypoint to match the lat/long listed in the guides? Would I tell the auto pilot to steer to that point on the chart? Waypoints must have come into use after I was working on shore for awhile. Thanks for your patience.

[Sailmonkey]

Waypoints are nothing but lat/long coordinates. If you drop a mark on your plotter and edit the lay/long to match the ines given to you, then you can use the gps to tell you how far from it you are and the bearing to it.

As far as the autopilot steering to it, that depends on the cables from the plotter to the autopilot as well as the prudence of steering to a fixed mark without a reality check

[nigel1]

Let us know the make/model of the plotter, someone might be able to find an online source for a manual.

[StuM]

Originally Posted by Alec H

I once held a CG six pack; so a bit embarrassed to ask this. My boat has a GPS, touch screen plotter. It's a charter boat I use a few week a year; so I've never seen the manual for the plotter. How do I use the way points I see in the cruising guides? Would I create the waypoint to match the lat/long listed in the guides? Would I tell the auto pilot to steer to that point on the chart? Waypoints must have come into use after I was working on shore for awhile. Thanks for your patience.

There have been cases of people doing that, and running into someone coming the other way who had done the same.

You can probably download a manual from the web for your specific plotter which will tell you how to create routes and waypoints.

You must have been working ashore for quite a while. Waypoints have existed as long as charts and compasses have.

Basically, waypoints are just reference points on your planned route, normally selected as positions where either you plan to change heading, where you need to ensure that you are closely on track, or where you need to be cautious because of potential traffic/obstructions, tidal flows etc. You can then use your plotter to tell you distance/heading/time to the next waypoint and/or to your destination for planning purposes such as checking tidal/current data.

if you set your final waypoint to be your actual destination, it's good practice to create another waypoint at a safe intermediate point close to it so that you can take manual control on the last leg.