Magellan Meridian Marine or Sportrak Pro Marine or what?

[JeremyM]

Hi, I'm fairly new to GPS. My dad had a nice Garmin mounted one on our boat a couple years ago, and I want to get a handheld one. I am mainly going to use it for marine use. I just got my boating license so now I can drive the Jet-Ski's by myself and go where I want. However, I don't know the 1000 Islands that well (my area) and I am going to purchase a handheld GPS unit. My first two choices are the Magellan Meridian Marine or the Magellan Sportrak Pro Marine. The Sportrak Pro Marine is cheaper than the Meridian, which makes it favorable. However, I was wanting a unit with a color screen, but now I am leaning more towards the features of the Marine models (waterproof, floats, more navigational aids, etc.). Right now I'm going more towards the Meridian Marine, but are there any other models/brands out there that would help me out? I am also going to use it for the occational trip to Florida or around my town for biking. Are these models capable of this? These don't have to be very good, but they should allow me to go on the roads and not get lost. I need it for Marine use probably 80% of the time, but that other 20% could come in handy for road/land use. I've read that for the Meridian Marine, you can only use one chart at a time on an SD card. So is this a major downfall? I'd like to go up and down the St. Lawrance river without getting totally cut right off or having to switch SD cards and then loosing my route. I havn't looked into the Sportrak Marine much though. Thanks for you taking your time to read my lengthly post. Oh, and this is my first post, hope to become a active member here!

- Jeremy

[JeremyM]

I think I've now decided to go with the Garmin Etrex Vista. Then only downfall with that is that it doesn't float and that you have to keep it pointing up to maintain satalite transmission. Other than those downfalls, this, I think, is perfect for me.

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