Plot your Course with Garmin Marine GPS

Garmin 76CSx

Garmin marine GPS units make navigating on the open water as easy as driving down the block to your local grocery store.

Keep reading to make sure you buy the marine gps that best suits your needs. When you come across the one you like, click on the link for more feature and pricing information.

Recreational boaters navigate on as many different bodies of water as there are roads to travel. From the coastal waters and the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico and the numerous inland lakes and rivers there are millions of people, with just as many reasons, who enjoy boating. To make sure every one of them is able to reach their destination, and return safely, regardless of budget, Garmin marine gps and chartplotters are offered with a wide variety of options.

Handheld marine gps units are very similar to those you find in your car. In fact, the Garmin GPSMAP 76CSx features a microSD card slot which makes this handheld unit incredibly flexible. In addition to loading your own mapping and route data onto a blank card, you can purchase cards that are preloaded with everything from lake maps to city streets to ocean cartography. Being suitable for marine use also means that there are few very notable differences from it’s land only counterparts. Most importantly, this handheld is waterproof, including the microSD card slot, which is also protected by the waterproof case. Being on the water, it’s not always smooth sailing, so to help prevent the accidental loss of your gps, if it should happen to slip and go overboard, the 76CSx floats. This also means that if your new Garmin Marine GPS goes overboard, you will have the chance to recover it by either going in after it, or hopefully you have a net and can simply scoop it up.

Chartplotters represent a major advance in marine gps technology. Now, you can not only know where you are, but that information is displayed on top of a nautical chart, turning your display screen into the electronic equivalent of your old paper charts. Chartplotters are also more versatile than handheld units. The simpler varieties, such as the Garmin 540, come preloaded with detailed maps of all US coastal areas and the Bahamas, onto which your gps location is projected (actually your ‘boat’ sits in the middle of the screen and the map moves around you). Similar to the handheld, there is also a mocroSD card slot that allows you to add in nautical charts of other areas, such as inland lakes and rivers. The 540 also has a world wide basemap, created from satellite images, should you be in the mood to go on a more than 3 hour tour.

Garmin 5015

More advanced chartplotters actually do not include an integrated gps unit. Instead you have the option of networking a variety of  other components such as radar, sonar and weather. These higher end units, such as the Garmin 5015 are much more than just a chartplotter. The huge 15″ screen with video quality resolution also has spare video inputs allowing you to monitor other areas of your boat, such as the engine room. Connecting to the Garmin Marine Network allows easy integration of sonar, radar and connection to XM satellite weather and radio. In addition to its preloaded maps of the coastal US, Alaska, Hawaii, and the Bahamas, the optional BlueChart g2 Vision Card allows you to add an extra dimension features to your chartplotter. The MarinerEye and FishEye views provide 3D maps of what is around your boat both above and below the waterline. The Auto Guidance feature will also search through all relevant charts of your desired route to create one that avoids all obstacles, such as shallow waters, buoys and other obstructions.

Plotting your course as a recreational boater on the Great Lakes, the Gulf of Mexico or out in th eopen ocean, has never been easier. Whether you’re out for a leisurely day on a local lake, or heading out for an overnight fishing trip a few hundred miles off the coast, Garmin can get you there, keep you updated on the weather and remember your course and location for the next time.

Check out this quick preview of some of the great features of the Garmin marine gps chartplotters.

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