My wife and I just returned from our annual month long Chesapeake Bay fall cruise. If you have long had all the electronic charting goodies, you may not want to read further. We have the standard set of instruments, including a 25 year old GPS that provides LAT LONG Waypoints, but little else.

A couple of months ago I bought an Asus Nexus 7, version I with built in GPS, refurbished for under $90. Bought it mostly to listen to books and music, but knowing my wife has an intense interest in weather and navigation, Apps would not be far behind. MXMariner was downloaded, along with charts, for $6.99. As an aside I also picked up a Belkin 140 watt inverter to charge the tablet, phone, and laptop. In short, all worked wonderfully!

The navigation aspects were terrific, especially for entering small coves etc. One feature we were unaware of was the projection line MXMariner provides. This proved to be a boon to make course corrections to avoid shoal water bars along our course.

Other benefits were the WiFi ability to get weather sites, including satellite shots, and email, of course. At at this point most marinas and restaurants provide WiFi. By the way we, find NOAA VHF weather mostly useless! Gone are the days of waiting for snail mail to arrive.

I cautioned my wife not to get addicted to the tablet, but I'm afraid she is, and unfortunately I am getting there.

Eddie