Check autopilot routing!!

[aginglawyer]

Twice this week, my 5215 happily charted a "guide to" course that would have taken me over land. No matter how good Ranger Tugs are, they can't do this! Anyone else have this issue? The first time was going into or out of Telegraph Harbour on Thetis Island. Today it was to Canoe Cove. Allan

 

[GulfSailor]

More details needed.
How was the course programmed in?

 

[Bruce Moore]

The manual is a bit ambiguous, but worth reviewing. Go To calculates a direct line from your location to your destination. Guide To "suggests" a best path - often a straight line. Route To creates a reasonable, and realistic, route. We usually use Route To to establish a basic course, distance to destination, and ETA. We don't, however, engage the auto-pilot to steer the course. Instead, we use the auto-pilot to follow a heading along the route, making our own adjustments, leg by leg.

 

[aginglawyer]

I got the route by going to the front page, then where to?, then search by name, then guide to. Whatever the limits, one would expect no part of the route would be over land!

Just sayin.

Once the route is checked, we do engage autopilot. We trust it but always remember "Trust, but verify."

Allan

 

[Shared Dream II]

Just a couple of things to check. Have you configured your boat in the Garmin system? This will establish your draft so the guide to function can take this into consideration. Also ensure you have the latest Garmin software and map revisions loaded.

 

[GulfSailor]

Just a couple of things to check. Have you configured your boat in the Garmin system? This will establish your draft so the guide to function can take this into consideration. Also ensure you have the latest Garmin software and map revisions loaded.

Yes, if it thinks your draft is zero it will assume you can travel over land. 😉

 

[baz]

Twice this week, my 5215 happily charted a "guide to" course that would have taken me over land. No matter how good Ranger Tugs are, they can't do this! Anyone else have this issue? The first time was going into or out of Telegraph Harbour on Thetis Island. Today it was to Canoe Cove. Allan

I use my Garmin 5212 with AutoPilot very often and have not seen this problem...

I normally do the following (as I recall)

1. Select by name, enter name, select the place from the choice displayed. I sometimes will enter a waypoint by touching the chart's screen and have the system calculate a safe course to this waypoint rather than "Select by name".

2. Select Guide to

3. Wait for route to be calculated and shown on the Chart plotter

4. Inspect the route display to ensure it has done the right thing

5. Engage auto pilot (and clearing various warning messages etc)

I let the auto pilot steer the boat unless there's an object such as a dead head in the way or an approaching boat needs to be avoided. In these cases I press the "Standby" button on the Auto Pilot display and steer the boat manually or simply make use of the 'shadow drive' function.

Getting back on course after disengaging the Auto Pilot can be done manually or simply by re-calculating the course to the desired end point.

The mention of zero draft is an interesting comment... I have mine set to 6 feet just to be safe.

I will admit that there are times that the safe course is a little too risky IMO and I steer manually if my depth reading gets to shallow for my liking.

 

[walldog]

One of the really neat things (not) about the "Guide to" function is that it will regularly route me over a buoy and then warn me to avoid the hazard when I get close. If it knows that the hazard to there, why does it route me over it? I use the guide to a lot, but watch the course very carefully as others here have stated.