Depth sounder

[paul2884]

We had an old plastimo hand held depth sounder many years ago and I was useful in the tender to check where a channel was and when exploring in the tender. Has anyone any experience with more modern devices suitable for the tender?

[Bill O]

Paul,
We had a hand held DF before and thought it was somewhat cumbersome to use when you were by yourself.

We glued in a thru hull type transducer for a humminbird in to our hard nesting dinghy and find it to be much easier to use. Either rowing or w/the outboard we see continuous depth data which show contours better, etc. A stern mounted transducer would work similarly.

There are some newer apps (Navionics?) that allows one to collect data, then transfer it to your chart plotter to essentially make charts.
Haven't fully researched this to see how feasible it would be to collect data in poorly charted areas, but would think this could be very helpful info for fellow cruisers.

[sv_pelagia]

We have a Deeper Pro portable depth sounder. It is excellent. Requires smartphone app. App does excellent bathymetric maps. A new feature (added this week) allows one to download text file of lat/long/depths without going to account on internet.

We are using our Deeper to chart poorly/un charted bays, coves, etc.

There several models of Deeper.
https://deepersonar.com/ca/en_ca

[Mike OReilly]

I've looked at those gizmos. They seem great, but I just stick to the old lead-line. Pretty easy to manage by yourself, even when rowing.

[sv_pelagia]

Deeper Pro scan of Murray Labyrinth (near Cape Caution, BC), all done while rowing around anchorage.
Depth in metres. Left panel shows extent of scan in anchorage; right panel shows depth and bottom at location.


Compare this to the current (official) CHS chart:Attachment 251335

I have since corrected these for tide level and made mbtiles "chart" with depths using SASPLANET and SAT2CHART for use with OpenCPN.

(I have checked calibration of Deeper sounder with my lead line. It was right on.)