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Bigobo is right, use it every trip out. You need to set this thing up just the way want and will have to play with it a while (with the manual) to get the most use out of it. Once you have it down you can do a lot with it. This winter you should take it with you on every road trip to better get aquainted with it. I am not familiar with the etrex but I think it is at the lower end of the handheld spcectrum. You really need to get a chart in there if you want to navigate with it.
My "back-up" gps is a magellan maridian marine. It has pre-loaded marine data. It is pretty good but not as detailed as the big unit. Basic boating data. You can definetly navigate with it. I use it along with my 10" unit. Get a stationary mount for it and supply boat DC power to it. (At night the back light eats batteries really fast) I mainly use the highway screen on the little guy and the full chart on the the big guy while running but the chart mode is not that bad (just small) with this thing. The tracking features are really good on the little unit. It is a great compliment to the big unit. I find myself looking at the little gps just as much as the big gps. It is amazing what you can get for a few hundred bucks now. This thing actually has every gps feature of my 10" raymaine unit costing 10X more (excpet a big color screen.)
I see now they offer something called "blue nav" for it. I hope to get this as an Xmas gift. It should increase the charting features for marine use quite a bit (for the handheld).
I am thinking of getting another "back up" to use truely as a back up. My magellan crapped out one day and I had to rely on the big unit alone...no problem but I really liked having two if them up and running different screens.
IMO these hand held GPS's are a MUST for EVERY boater. Even more important then a life vest IMO. I hate to say it but I never even looked at my chart on board this year at all, not once. They make nice wall decor in my office now. (I do keep a waterproof fold up chart on boat however)
Below is a part of a pic that shows part of my dash and you can see the setup..(handhelp in upper left) it is not ideal by any means but it works ok. I am still playing with an on-board CC computer in my basement but it is not ready for sea trials yet....another story.
BTW, I took a very informative course last spring given by an author of a popular GPS book at woods hole called advanced marine GPS for boaters. It was the best 35 bucks I ever spent. This guy new every feature of every machine and all the current software, much of it he demoed in the class...very worhwhile. If you see the course next year, take it.
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