Protecting Chart plotter sensitivity to grandkid's fingers

[baz]

Subject: Protecting Chart plotter sensitivity to grandkid's fingers

This is both a FYI and a question for others who have small children onboard....

Yesterday we had a northerly wind with sizable swells. We were fishing and would position the boat a mile north of our fishing spot to let the boat slowly move with the wind blowing on our port beam.

This caused the boat to roll quite severely at times and my grandkids were hanging onto anything they could get their hands on. In particular one apparently placed their whole hand on my secondary Chart plotter at the helm position. When I returned to the helm later to re-position the boat to the northerly spot of our desired fishing area I noticed all my Chart plotter settings were a real mess (lost my Remaining fuel readout, Depth readout, nm/gal readout, Chart display all over the place, etc). 😱 :shock: 🙁 😳 Was fishing in shallow waters. How can I deal/avoid this from happening again ? :?:

My first thought was to place the Garmin plastic covers over the Chart plotter screens to protect them from the 'sticky hands'. :roll: :idea:

 

[knotflying]

That's what I would do. You may get arrested if you use handcuffs. :lol:

 

[JamesTXSD]

I guess just saying "DON'T touch this!" doesn't work these days. Fortunate that he didn't grab onto the throttle instead. To a kid, all that stuff looks like a video game; the court would call that "an attractive nuisance." I would not leave an unattended kid at or near the helm; setting boundaries really can be for a kid's "own good."

Of course, when I was young, if my Mother didn't want me to touch something she would say, "If you touch that, I will break your arm off and beat you with it." 😉 She learned it from her Mother, I learned it from both of them. It must work - I still have both arms.

 

[baz]

I'm wondering if the Chart plotter display's data configuration can be saved along with a Title for later retrieval ? I say this as later on when back at my slip the next day I set about to reconfigure the one Chart plotter that got messed up and after plodding through various menus my pristine untouched display returned exactly as I had prior to the errant 'hand slap' !

Mike.... the handcuffs technique did make me laugh while drinking my coffee which I had to struggle to keep in my mouth as I read your post. :lol:

 

[Admiral S]

If you push the power button once, you will have the option to Lock the touchscreen. That should prevent any accidental touches.

 

[baz]

If you push the power button once, you will have the option to Lock the touchscreen. That should prevent any accidental touches.

Thanks.... didn't know that. 🙂