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The name of the game is redundancy....

Unless someone pulls the plug on the satellites (in which case you might WANT to be lost in the middle of nowhere) the signal will be there. Most of us have a chartplotter at the helm for primary navigation.

Then you need a backup. I run a laptop with small USB GPS receiver, and simple nav software (free for pc, a few $$ for mac) and raster charts. (free). I use it for anchor alarm, (on the "dresser" in the forward cabin)....open one eye and see where you are.... I will also hook up the AIS I just ordered to it. If the chartplotter at the helm fails, I can use it to navigate.

If BOTH of the above fail, I have a Garmin handheld and paper charts. I carrry a LOT of AA batteries, most of which are in the ditch bag with handheld VHF and the aforementioned Garmin.

None of the above talk to each other. I do not transfer routes or waypoints between them, in fact I do not HAVE routes or waypoints. I ALWAYS navigate to a point created, just then, with the cursor.

There is a reason for this. Mind you, I am speaking from the point of view of a professional navigator. I fly airplanes across the Atlantic every week, sometimes twice. Fixed waypoints come from (expensive) databases, updated bi-weekly. The waypoints defining the flexible part of the route are electronically and wirelessly uploaded into the nav computers and then triple verified by two independent sets of eyes....

99% of all "gross navigational errors" in the trans oceanic (out of radar coverage) environment come from inaccurately loaded waypoints......

So I don't want a database of home made waypoints....there is too much chance of data corruption, man or machine made...You can pick the wrong "green 10".....or the route that goes west of the island instead of east without knowing.....

Finally, as opposed to a powerboat, a sailboat almost NEVER gets there twice along the same route.....

So, I look at the map, make myself TOTALLY aware of where I am, where I want to go, and what's in between, and then I create ONE waypoint and go to it.

My $0.03

I run a MAC with NavX....$50 or so. I can't point you to the free chart viewing software for PC, I have heard it exists.

Dick, yes, I also get the "big picture" off paper first. It's just not the same on a 5" screen. Especially if you're talking hundreds of miles. I don't plot progress, I do keep a log of time, position, course and speed on the hour, every hour. If the satellites go I can start a DR with a know position of no less than an hour old....