I'll definitely give it a look. Thanks!

Pete, how would others tell from that if you were pinching? You'd probably have to know the actual TWS/direction, right?

Probably. If you pan out you'll see a head land about half way up Sanibel Island. My specific question would be, with the wind coming out of the W at about 7mph, would that head land cause a header. Watching my speed drop into the 2+ knot range from 5, either I'm missing a shift or allowing the boat to pinch. I think there was an oscillating shift, I'm just not sure if the headland was part of it. Of course, shift or no shift, I might still have been steering badly.

How do you pick up shifts, other than tell tales?

hi Pete

you wanted to know how to animate tracks and the put them up on youtupe

1. i get the tracks of my GPS with "g7towin" and save it as a .gpx file.

2. open the track with "GpsarPro" (i paid for it, it's that good)and fix the track points that are off the chart (i did not go 50kts ). it also gives all the speed results like best 10sec, 500m.... than i resave the track.

3. load the track into "TopFusion" where you can animate the track with a map like this www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlUtFU321aA

4. that's the tricky part to get a video from the animation.
i use "CamStudio.org" to capture the animation as a video the software is not great but it works.

hope the helps

you can always goto "connect.garmin.com" and upload your tracks. they have animation and maps to. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/42612803

i knew you made a video or 2 but i didn't see that software.. that is really very cool.

how does it know the wind direction? does it calculate that from your path, or do you input that value?

GPSAR, gps action replay, even the old free version Gpsar333, is a very small but sailing specific bit of software made a few years ago by a french windsurfer interested in speed runs

it can do a lot of fun things, like make polars, set different colors for different speeds, give averages of 500mtrs etc.

the map part takes a bit of mucking around though

it has some wind direction finding abilities that presumably work well if the wind blows consistently

however it doesn't work too well on small mountain lakes where the wind channels down valleys and around islands etc.

GPSAR is what i use to analyse my sailing on my computer

http://gpsactionreplay.free.fr/

the wind direction note on the youtube video was a youtube annotation that i added to help make sense of the sailing for non-sailors

but to share animated tracks it is much easier to use internet based animators like mapmytracks

but mapmytracks is not sailing specific and so has less sailing functionality

Now they tell me!

http://gizmodo.com/5636541/contour-adds-integrated-maps-into-its-helmet-cam-videos

Pete: http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-08-14/entertainment/22220481_1_gps-devices-demo-race-track

Far out! Thanks.

Arie and I launched from the Sanibel causeway yesterday and went out to watch Summerset. http://www.cmcs-sail.org/

My truck and trailer were still there when we got back, we didn't get a ticket, get shot or arrested. So I guess for the moment the Sanibel causeway is accessible for cats.

http://connect.garmin.com/player/53372119

This is the easiest way, by far, that I have found to post gps tracks.

this site work well, as well.

http://www.mapmytracks.com/

Do so! I have mine always on the boom and never had any problems. However, if you just want to record data and don't need direct view on the display (speedometer, etc.) you can store it in the pocket of your trampoline - if it has a zipper. The unit does receive satellite signals in there, too.

Actually, this last track was recorded inside the hull. I put it and some valuables in a waterproof bag and stuck it in the port.

I also like this summary report. No idea what the elevation is all about.

Cool! Guess it did work...and you must be better at technology than you give yourself credit for

Since this is measured by barometric pressure changes, it was probably the hull heating up/cooling (since the GPS was inside)

Elevation, on a lake?

Reminds me of the Texas Aggie Waterskier who got a new waterski for his birthday. He didn't use it for over two years though.

Why not you ask?

Because it took him that long to find a lake
with a downhill slope!

if you have a high end GPS unit it may have a true barometric pressure sensor...but chances are it's sensing it's position relative to the satellites to establish a 3D position (lat, long, elevation). Calculating elevation by GPS signal is less precise than latitude and longitude and the 11 foot difference is likely just the amount of error in the elevation calculation and/or a periodic weak signal.

Or maybe you were flying a hull hooked in a harness wearing the GPS around your neck on a Supercat 20, F20 carbon, M20 or tornado...

Factor in the 8-10 foot ocean swells and the 11 feet seems a bit on the low side.