Most Garmins seem to ignore the route sent to them when they are in NMEA 0183 mode. While their manuals don't come out and say that it won't work, they typically do say that waypoints will work and don't say anything about routes. This is not a Coastal Explorer problem; it is just a limitation of the Garmin receivers.

However, all Garmin's support the "Garmin Transfer Protocol" or "Garmin Interface" (same thing, different names on different models). This is the preferred way to send routes, waypoints, and other things to a Garmin, and most programs require you to switch to this mode for performing a transfer and then back to NMEA 0183 mode for position tracking. Coastal Explorer 1.1 has full support for the Garmin protocol so you can leave the Garmin in that mode and Coastal Explorer will still receive a GPS fix. The only limitation with the Garmin protocol that we are aware of is that it will not send depth information to the PC if you have a sounder attached to your GPS/plotter.

To use the Garmin Transfer Protocol, you need to select it in the menu system of the Garmin unit and then use "Tools > Options > Instruments > Port Settings" (or Auto Detect) in Coastal Explorer to select the Garmin Interface on the port it is connected to.

When you use the "Send To GPS" command in Coastal Explorer and select a port that is configured to use the Garmin protocol, the route will be sent using the Garmin protocol no matter what.