"Does a GPS float?"

The three of us were out on my buddy's 27 ft. sailboat in Long Beach harbor last weekend. Unknown to any of us, one of the lines that controls one of the sails had nicely positioned itself behind our GARMIN GPSMAP 175 and the bracket it is mounted to. Surprise, when I pulled the rope, the bracket let go and the GPS immediately went airborne and into the Pacific Ocean. That was the first surprise of the day. The second surprise was that the thing actually floated!

Our skillful skipper quickly turned the boat around, which was a good thing. Then, as we neared the floating GPS, our skillful skipper jumped overboard. That was the third surprise of the day. Did I mention that the two of us that were left on the boat don't know how to sail? (that's kind of important). Oh, and did I mention that the winds were 20 knots plus? (that's important too). So, I quickly remembered everything our skillful and now wet skipper had done and managed to turn the boat around and, thanks to my excellent driving, picked him right up out of the water.

Of course, we expected a 50-minute bath in salt water meant that we had a thousand dollar doorstop at this point. But, after running fresh water over it and removing the chip and battery pack (and a good hour in the sun to dry), the thing not only powered up, but acquired our position and tracked our speedy, if not wet, trip back to the slip. After we brought it back home and gave it a thorough wash job, the GPSMAP 175 was firing on all cylinders. Used it yesterday, no problem! Does a GPS float? Why yes, it does!

M.C., J.C. & I.S.