Hi Charlie,

...since the publication of the Explorer Charts, probably less than 5% of the total distance covered would indicate anything more than a 5 meter XTE from the tracks between all the waypoints Monty and Sarah have plotted... (grin) It's astonishing how closely most folks adhere to them, and the weirdest thing is to watch boat after boat, in a wide open area in a place like the Exuma Bank, execute a 90 very dramatic course change at the precise same spot, when it's not really necessary to have gone that far around a shoal, or whatever...

John, can you provide any more information about the incident you describe? That's a good one, I can so easily imagine that happening...

Mark, like most others, I've become a big fan of AIS, once you've used it a bit, you won't want to be without it... However, that could depend quite a bit on where you're doing your boating, in many areas it won't be all that helpful... But approaching a major traffic area like Tampa Bay, or Miami, it can be incredibly helpful to have...

I don't have a stand alone unit, or one that displays on my chartplotter, but rather the Standard Horizon vhf that has integrated AIS on a small display on the radio... For my purposes, it's fine, it still provides the basic and most important information you need... Having targets displayed on a plotter can be nice, but hardly necessary in my opinion, as you're generally only concerned with a couple at any given time, anyway...

Bottom line is, if you can add a basic AIS capability for a modest additional cost, that's a no-brainer, and I'd suggest going for it...

best regards,

Jon