Dear Capt. Paul:
What are the coordinates of Manila Village?
Thanks,
Steve Smith
Capt. Paul’s response:
The actual Manila Village is located at N29 25.686 x W89 58.591.
This position is where the old docks were located. The general area around that site is now commonly referred to as Manila Village.
Use your depth finder, and try the reef south of the old village at N29 25.632 x W89 58.571, about 60 feet due south of the old docks. This reef was at one time actually part of the “Village” island.
Dear Capt. Paul:
Have you ever heard of the area 51 outside of Vermilion Bay? If you have, do you have the coordinates of that area?
I saw an article in Louisiana Sportsman about a year ago, and it was saying that there are a couple hot rigs outside of the mouth of the bay.
I figure I’m going to need to go in the salt water in the Gulf to catch some specks.
Thank you,
Jason
Capt. Paul’s response:
There are approximately eight platforms in Eugene Island block 51. They are shown as EI-51-1, EI-51-2, EI-51-4, EI-51-8, EI-51-B, EI-51-B-HEL and EI-51-C. They all are in about 18 to 20 feet of water.
I believe platform EI 51B is the rig that you are seeking. It is located very close to the center of the block. I plotted platform EI 51B at or about N29 14.2166 x W91 41.047.
Other platforms can be seen from EI 51B, and from those most of the others in Leased Block 51 can be seen.
Dear Capt. Paul:
My question has to do with GPS coordinates I’ve recently received from a friend and entered into my GPS. The area I’m inquiring about is Tiger Shoals. These are wellheads that were lost in the storms, but still are great for fishing.
Unfortunately, the coordinates were somehow incorrect. We’re sure his coordinates are correct, but did not sync properly with my GPS.
My friend recommends that I reset my GPS. If I do reset, as my friend suggests, will I lose or alter all of my existing coordinates?
Thanks for your help,
Clyde Boutte
Capt. Paul’s response:
Two related but different settings could cause the problem you describe.
One could be that the position format of your unit and that of your friend’s are set for different readings. Usually the position format in a consumer GPS unit are set to latitude and longitude, but there are three different latitude-longitude settings that the units can be set to.
The most common lat/long setting is degrees, minutes and thousandths of a minute (ddd,mm.mmm). So if your unit is set to one of the others, say degrees, minutes and seconds, the two positions cannot be entered unless you convert one or the other.
First, check the format that is set in your GPS and the format of your friend’s positions. If they are different, convert one to another, or change the position format settings in your GPS unit and enter the positions. When finished, reconfigure your GPS back to the settings you are most familiar with.
If they are the same, then you should consider the datum settings. Either way, a position obtained by using one datum and entered into a GPS unit while it is set to a different datum setting can result in a position error of over 5 miles.
To eliminate this, a GPS user should always try and determine the datum that was used to capture or plot a published position.
Most GPS units come with a default datum set to WGS 84. However, many positions are published using some of the other common datum. For instance, all of the offshore platforms are recorded by the Department of the Interior, Mineral Management Services using NAD 27 datum. The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries mainly uses the NAD 27 datum for its reefs and other published sites.
If your friend located and marked the positions using one datum, you should use that same datum to enter the position in your GPS unit.
Simply obtain the datum he used or what the datum was when he captured the positions, and using the MENU screen, change the datum in your unit to match the datum he used. Then enter the datum and reconfigure your unit back to the datum you normally use. All of his waypoints will then be in your unit, converted to read the position as per the datum that you are using. The latitude and longitude will be numbered differently from the positions he gave you, but the positions will be the same when using your normal datum.
