Most owners of VHF radios equipped with Digital Selective Calling are familiar with the primary benefit DSC offers: transmitting an automated distress signal at the push of a button.

But your DSC radio can do a lot of other things, too, and I get the sense that virtually none of us use these features. For example, it allows you to "hail" another DSC-equipped vessel or shore station specifically, like placing a person-to-person call. When you initiate a call, it also identifies your vessel to receiving stations, like caller I-D. But we'll get to all that.

Captain Richard Rodriguez of the BitterEnd blog has this review of the app, and he’s also sponsoring »

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I’ve written before about refilling disposable one-pound propane cylinders that so many portable appliances use. That article is the most-viewed post on Navagear.com.

Chris Landry has a great article, with embedded video, over at Soundings Online:

[We’ve written about the Torqeedo line before. In fact, those earlier articles are consistently top-rated pages at Navagear, suggesting that there is a lot of interest in the product line.

I just spotted a poster about this at the Port of Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. Figured I would pass it along, although it’s a few months old at this point.

Back in early 2008, there were only four passable online cruising wikis – boater-maintained, real-time electronic bulletin boards to exchange information about anything from fouled mooring buoys to new marinas. Of those, only two really achieved the goal of allowing skippers to help other skippers: ActiveCaptain and MyCruisingLog (read my reviews here).

Nearly two years later, have things improved? After conducting some new tests, I’d say "maybe."

This time around I used a new navigational hazard to rate the competition: The "hazard" was the removal of the old Union Oil pier that stuck out into Puget Sound from Edwards Point, just south of Edmonds, Wash. The Washington State Ferries removed the pier in February to open the views.

Since Garmin says that there is "no certainty an offer would be made" to purchase Raymarine, but has nevertheless stated that any purchase offer would be in cash, I'm going to go out on a limb and make this newsworthy pronouncement:

If Navagear makes an offer to buy Raymarine, it will definitely be on credit. We just don't have enough cash on hand to buy Raymarine outright. But we could hit up some relatives, take out a second mortgage, and try to get some money together, I guess.

Panbo has the scuttlebutt, which I’ll quote below.

Last week, the newest Navagear feature at MadMariner was published, discussing some options available for informal realtime status reports using free online services such as Twitter and Facebook. Essentially, you can update your float plan as you go, letting friends and family know where you are and what your intentions are.