Lake Winnipesaukee

[CJ River Rider]

Originally posted by CJ River Rider View Post

Thanks for the advice, going up there in late July & staying at the Center Harbor Inn. Was debating to get a newer lake chart card for my Garmin plotter which only has coastal charts, but now I think I'll get it!

Rocks in the middle of the lake??? I guess I'll have to keep an eye on depth.…



If you get the Lake Vu Ultra HD chip (that might be the only Garmin option), it will auto-route for you which makes it pretty easy to avoid rocks and that could make it well-worth the 199 bucks. Your depth finder will be almost useless for avoiding them, the rocks and ledges are mostly comprised of ancient volcanic ring dikes and glacial erratics, thus they are often randomly-placed with no gradual reduction in depth surrounding them. The hazards are well-marked, but the NH inland lakes ATON system is different than everywhere else in the world and can be confusing. Have fun, The Center Harbor area is lovely. We used to rent a house evey Summer right around the corner from CH in Blackey Cove and would go grocery shopping in CH by boat since it was easier than taking the car. The grocery store allows you to bring the carts to the town docks and they'll come collect them. Make sure to set aside some extra money for a meal at Canoe, great food.

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Thanks again for the reply, they closed the thread so I had to reply as a new thread.

Anyway, will these spots show up on the Lake Vu charts? I have a Garmin echo 44dv with the marine charts, right now I don't think I can auto-navigate but I'll check the manual or call Garmin.

I do have an older version Garmin's US Inlands Lakes v3. Looking at this on the computer, I see a ton of islands and depth changes. Is this what you are referring too? See screen shot below.

 

[Mischief Managed]

Originally posted by CJ River Rider View Post

Thanks for the advice, going up there in late July & staying at the Center Harbor Inn. Was debating to get a newer lake chart card for my Garmin plotter which only has coastal charts, but now I think I'll get it!

Rocks in the middle of the lake??? I guess I'll have to keep an eye on depth.…



If you get the Lake Vu Ultra HD chip (that might be the only Garmin option), it will auto-route for you which makes it pretty easy to avoid rocks and that could make it well-worth the 199 bucks. Your depth finder will be almost useless for avoiding them, the rocks and ledges are mostly comprised of ancient volcanic ring dikes and glacial erratics, thus they are often randomly-placed with no gradual reduction in depth surrounding them. The hazards are well-marked, but the NH inland lakes ATON system is different than everywhere else in the world and can be confusing. Have fun, The Center Harbor area is lovely. We used to rent a house evey Summer right around the corner from CH in Blackey Cove and would go grocery shopping in CH by boat since it was easier than taking the car. The grocery store allows you to bring the carts to the town docks and they'll come collect them. Make sure to set aside some extra money for a meal at Canoe, great food.

__________________________________________________ ________________________________________________

Thanks again for the reply, they closed the thread so I had to reply as a new thread.

Anyway, will these spots show up on the Lake Vu charts? I have a Garmin echo 44dv with the marine charts, right now I don't think I can auto-navigate but I'll check the manual or call Garmin.

I do have an older version Garmin's US Inlands Lakes v3. Looking at this on the computer, I see a ton of islands and depth changes. Is this what you are referring too? See screen shot below.

The standard Lake Vu HD and Lake Vu Ultra HD both have all the hazards and ATONs clearly marked. Auto-routing is not a necessity by any means, it's just nice and it's only 50 bucks more to buy the Ultra to get it. According to Garmin, the auto-routing does work on the 44DV with the Lake Vu Ultra HD.

A great resource for planning a boat trip is: https://webapp.navionics.com/?lang=en#boating@11&key=ge|hGrg|qL That site also has all the hazards and ATONs marked and it's free. When the website opens, click on MENU then click on Map Options and slide the safety depth to whatever is a safe depth for your boat. Now look at the chart and make a note of all the rocks (tiny black diamonds surrounded by tiny red squares) that are surrounded by white "safe" depth.

Since you are going to be staying in Center Harbor, find Farrar Point just south East of Center Harbor on Navionics and then look at all the rocks in the wide open water just south east of Farrar Point. That's the kind of spot that'll get ya if you are not paying attention That said, it is NOT difficult to navigate there and there are tens of thousands of wide open acres of totally safe places to boat. You just can't assume that X feet from shore is always safe or that you have to just avoid going near any markers you see, as quite often the only safe route might be between two markers that are close together or between a marker and the shore. If in doubt, stop and check your chart.