Garmin Auto Guidance Glitch?

[boatliker]

The other day, I was cruising a straight course on Auto Guidance at about 22 knots when the autopilot suddenly veered off course by about 10-15 degrees. After about 5 or 10 seconds, the autopilot gradually corrected the course and smoothly resumed Auto Guidance with no input from me. Is this a symptom of some kind of hydraulic issue?

On a somewhat related note, when using Auto Guidance I sometimes switch the autopilot to standby in order to steer around an obstacle. When I re-engage Auto Guidance, the boat makes a hard left or right turn in order to return to the Auto Guidance course. What Garmin setting can I change so the boat will gradually return to the correct course rather than turning abruptly?

Thanks for any feedback.

 

[Red Raven]

Regarding the first issue, it could be several things. 1) Loss of GPS momentarily and then correcting back on course. 2) The route has an aberrant path in it. Zoom in on all routes before using to ensure the route doesn’t have these. They often are caused by objects the program is confused by or chart anomalies. For example bridge pillars etc. often confuse the Garmin. I always manually steer through any areas where the route has a funny path (again you often need to zoom in to see them). 3) metal objects that may move due waves etc. are too close to your CCU compass causing compass instability.

Regarding the second issue, the course correction is due to you leaving the planned course to steer around the obstacle. If you zoom in on your GPS when this occurs you can see how far off the magenta course line you are. I use two methods to avoid the sudden correction to gat back on path. 1) Before restarting auto guidance zoom in to see how far off course you really are and then manually steer back on track, then restart auto guidance. 2) Before restarting auto guidance in the menu options choose navigation options and then recalculate auto guidance route, then restart auto guidance.

I hope this helps,

Curt