In the last few years as I’ve been making offshore trips as crew for my friends, whether back and forth to the Caribbean from New England or across the Atlantic, it seems that a lot of the crew aboard show up with their own hand-held GPSs and an InReach or a satphone.
This is a “just-in-case” level of preparation by sailors who have in fact been on boats that were hit by lightning or suffered a battery bank collapse that meant built-in marine electronics were no longer working or reliable.
Garmin has long been a leader in hand-held GPSs and their GPSMAP 86s are state of the art. But, now, they have the new GPSMAP 86sci that incorporates the InReach satellite communications function right in the unit.
InReach is not free, like GPS. A standard plan that Garmin offers will run $14.99 a month for the lowest level functionality. For active and regular use, the price can quickly escalate to $49.99 or more a month.
Aside from the InReach capability the new 86sci does all of the things the standard 86s do. You’ll have coastal Blue Charts, back up navigation and full tracking while you are underway. If you are already a Garmin marine electronics user, the 86sci becomes a remote wand that can operate the autopilot, tune into the Fusion sound system, display your boat’s data and give barometer and altimeter data.
The new Garmin GPSMAPsci with InReach, looks like a valuable backup to the main systems and provides the redundancy sailors cherish. If you are already a Garmin user, then owning an 86sci is a no brainer at $649.99.
