Urban TI – Fast Sail – New York City – Hudson – Liberty

Urban TI – Fast Sail – New York City – Hudson – Liberty SP to GW Bridge and Back


Fun sail in the Hudson River in New York City.

Fighting a 3-4 knot current at points but had good wind and a trusty 2.5 HP Suzuki as a backup.

Fun sail around the Statue of Liberty, up along Southern Manhattan running up river to the George Washington Bridge followed by a swift return (now going with the currents).

Picked up a couple of family members in Midtown Manhattan (Riverside Park, 59th street) and continued down river to the Statue of Liberty and Liberty State Park.

Rewarding and enjoyable sail.

Enjoy the lengthy 4K video!

https://youtu.be/NBLeRp0LF3A

_________________
Jim
Hobie TI 2022 - Offshore rig - Outboard - having fun!
Hobie TI 2021 - Offshore rig - Outboard - sold
Hobie TI 2016 - Offshore rig - Outboard - sold
Hobie Kona 2014
Hobie AI 2015 - sold
Hobie Rev 13 2014 - sold
Hobie Outback - 2008 - sold

Great vid, Jim.
I noticed you appear to be using a Garmin 78s for your nav - or something similar?
I'm looking for a chartplotter & wondering about a handheld to avoid having to install a battery.
There are few options, the 78s seems to be the only purpose-made handheld for marine use (others being more 'outdoors' but not salt-water proof), but the screen is very small & doesn't come pre-installed with BlueChart g2 so that adds to the cost...
Do you find the small screen difficult to read when on the cradle?

Redkite, I've used a Garmin 78 ever since it came out. I usually have it placed where I can pick it up and look at the screen more closely. The 78 is not really waterproof. I keep mine in a small dry bag just to be sure. Taking care of it will assure it will last for years.

Keith

_________________
2015 AI 2, 2014 Tandem

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex ... It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." A. Einstein

"Less is more" Anon

Thanks Keith.
Do you use a BlueChart on it, or just the standard base map?

RedKite,

Yes in this video I was using my Garmin 78sc (comes preloaded with Garmin BlueCharts for US Coastal Areas).

The screen on the 78sc is small and a bit hard to get oriented for navigation on a bouncing kayak in ocean waves.

I have recently moved up to a Garmin EcoMap 74cv. This unit has a large 7" screen and comes with a sonar transducer. The transducer is one of the newer units and does not fit in my "Lowrance Ready" transducer cavity in the bottom of my Hobie 2016 TI. I decided to mount the transducer thru hull internal mount. I built a custom closed cell foam mount inside the hull under the rear seat. Did one all day sail in the Chesapeake (Annapolis, MD) and the unit worked great and is easy to view and get oriented for navigation. The sonar also works great. The unit does pull some current (~ 1 ma). I had to redesign my battery setup on the TI to accommodate the 74cv GPS / Fish Finder and also provide power to the two action cameras on the TI (GoPro Hero 5 and Garmin Virbe XE).

Given I take long all day trecks covering 20-50 miles in a day and sometimes spanning back to back days in my TI I decided to go with multiple batteries. I am currently using 2 12ma SLA batteries configured in parallel to power the Garmin 74cv GPS / Fish Finder. I am also using Wilderness Systems Lithium 15a battery to power the action cameras. Each battery can back up the others in an emergency. Both battery setups work great. The Wilderness Systems 15a Lithium battery will not work with the Garmin 74cv (draws too much current) but if you disable the sonar transducer the Wilderness Systems battery will power the 74cv for about 6 hours.

I keep the 78sc GPS in my emergency go bag as a backup.

I am sailing in the Atlantic Ocean on Friday (tomorrow) off Corson's Inlet and Avalon, NJ. Hope to provide an update then. Processing the lengthy 4K videos takes lots of time....The Annapolis TI sail is on my hard drive waiting for processing. The sail tomorrow will add additional hours of 4k video....

Hope this helps.

Jim

_________________
Jim
Hobie TI 2022 - Offshore rig - Outboard - having fun!
Hobie TI 2021 - Offshore rig - Outboard - sold
Hobie TI 2016 - Offshore rig - Outboard - sold
Hobie Kona 2014
Hobie AI 2015 - sold
Hobie Rev 13 2014 - sold
Hobie Outback - 2008 - sold

I use BlueChart which is much better than the base map.

The Garmin 72 with maps is a bit expensive, but if you take care of it, it should last for years, and it is very good.

Keith

_________________
2015 AI 2, 2014 Tandem

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex ... It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." A. Einstein

"Less is more" Anon

Thanks Keith, Jim.
Here, when I add the cost of BlueChart g2 to the price of a 78s, it gets close to many 5" (with g2 included)... making it rather expensive for such a small screen, albeit there's still the cost of fitting battery etc. to mount the larger units.
I agree the 78s might still be good to start with, then use as a back-up when I get a larger unit.

So I think 5"-7" mounted units seem the sweet spot for size v. cost, with the Garmin 65cv a good balance.
Note I'm mainly interested in navigation, although sonar would be nice to have.
Also the B&G Vulcan series are priced very well here (particularly the 7" which is tempting as currently less than the 65cv), although it's touch-screen only, which might not be as suitable as physical buttons on a wet kayak... Any thoughts on this?

Obviously a handheld could be dry-bagged, but are there any kind of spray-hoods available for protecting mounted displays from the worst of the sea water?
I'm sure I have seen some sort of semi-rigid fabric hood/sun shade covering a gps unit on a YouTube before now?

Look forward to seeing how you get on with the 74cv Jim - a quick look on Google streetview at Avalon and it looks ideal for exploring with a TI!