# FMT equivalent for NC?



## Egrets Landing (Feb 11, 2016)

tedcombs said:


> Anyone know of a chip that comes close to the detail of the FMT chip but for North Carolina?
> 
> I'm new to the NC area and the tide change is a lot more drastic than growing up in East/Central Florida.
> 
> Any advice is appreciated. I'll be getting a new GPS also so that part doesn't matter.


 Get a Simrad EVO, Lowrance Carbon, Elite Ti2 or LIVE unit. That will allow you to run the most charts. ISLA will working to cover GA and the Carolinas probably next year. If you get a Garmin or other non compatible machine, when it comes out, you won't be able to run it. Garmin and the most of the others continue to promote general reference charts only that are most suitable for offshore. The chart options and flexibility are far more important than the unit itself.


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## tedcombs (Mar 12, 2010)

Egrets Landing said:


> Get a Simrad EVO, Lowrance Carbon, Elite Ti2 or LIVE unit. That will allow you to run the most charts. ISLA will working to cover GA and the Carolinas probably next year. If you get a Garmin or other non compatible machine, when it comes out, you won't be able to run it. Garmin and the most of the others continue to promote general reference charts only that are most suitable for offshore. The chart options and flexibility are far more important than the unit itself.


Thanks for the info! I currently have a Garmin that came on the boat and have found out that it is not very helpful for inshore navigation, I find myself using the satellite view on my phone more than it.


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## Egrets Landing (Feb 11, 2016)

tedcombs said:


> I currently have a Garmin that came on the boat and have found out that it is not very helpful for inshore navigation, I find myself using the satellite view on my phone more than it.


 You and thousands of others.....


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## Newman (Jan 22, 2018)

In most cases staring at a screen for your primary source of navigation is a bad idea.
Take your time and learn the safest route at low water, then you can set waypoints for low light or bad weather.
This is especially true in places with large tide swings.
Your Garmin is just fine.


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## Egrets Landing (Feb 11, 2016)

Then you can stare at the screen in poor lighting conditions to to use your Set Waypoints as your primary source of navigation like most everyone who runs a garmin inshore. Who needs the Garmin map? Just run your own tracks and waypoints. Its really the only way you can use a Garmin inshore for most places and under some pointed questioning, most all of the inshore garmin fans finally admit that is exactly what they have to do. Take away their waypoints and tracks and the chart is useless. You certainly can't use it to read the water and because it shows you running on land in so many places when you are floating in 5', you better hope your waypoints are backed up. If the chart was good, you would not need to create your own waypoints and tracks to know where to run. That is the point of the chart in the first place.


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## tedcombs (Mar 12, 2010)

The other issue I run into up here is that I live roughly 2 hours from the water. So I am not out every weekend to learn the waters like I would like too. Along with that, I mix it up and go to different places a lot.

Either way it doesn't seem like there are great mapping options for up here anyway. So I will just take it slow once I'm out of the channel.


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