I was on Orcas Island in the Washington San Juan Islands
this past week and had a number of interesting GPS experiences. We got there
via a Seaplane, also called a Float Plane from Seattle. There was no issue
using a cell phone and BrailleNote GPS on this 50 minute flight. It was
fascinating to know what we were flying over, to see the speed and the
altitude. Sometimes, these planes stay 100 feet off the deck. I should post the
Replay file I created. This is what others may know of as a bread crumb track.
On an island without a lot of points of interest, it sure
was useful to be able to record points and to use points I previously recorded.
There are some cool hikes for example and the key points on one of those hikes
were marked.
It was extremely useful to have the exact location of our
inn marked so we could go on walks and find our way back.
I was trying to figure out on a future trip how to visit
Victoria British Columbia and Sequim Washington. I could see from using Explore
mode that Victoria was only 27 miles South West and Sequim 37 miles South. Most
ferries route you through Anacortes so unfortunately, it is not as simple as
going straight to those places unless you are in a boat or seaplane. So close
but yet so far. I am going to see if we can charter a sailboat to take us to
these places.
I have mentioned before that there is an Island near Orcas
called Blind Island. I would try to at least set foot there just for the heck
of it. Apparently, there are no inhabitants there.
Orcas was just a reminder of a place where having the
BrailleNote was more helpful than the cell phone since there was little to no
coverage.
Next stop for Gena and me is Ireland, September 4-12. We have
been learning about the trip virtually, starting in Westport and ending up in
Achill, walking 40 miles. More about that next week.
Mike
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