Hello Stonewall and welcome to the forum,
have you already tried to save the waypoints to the SD card by sticking the card into the slot where you had your Navionic chip?
Hit the Menu Button twice and go to the Navigation Tab, scroll down to "export all navigation data" and save them by pressing the right cursor button. I'm not sure if that works, because my 981 doesn't have a second SD card slot.
If that doesn't work, you can download your Navigation Data directly to your PC with the PC connection set:
http://store.humminbird.com/products/323024/AS_PC2If you don't have a serial port on you PC, you need a Serial to USB adapter as well.
http://store.humminbird.com/products/322963/AS_USBYou don't have to buy this from Humminbird directly. These adapters are also available in computer stores.
Since you have a 1197, you would also need a decent power source, because the power cable which comes with the PC connection set might not provide enough juice to run your 1197 long enough. There are two terminals for 9V block batteries on the cable, but the 9V batteries don't have enough capacity.
You can use the cable nevertheless: Cut off the terminals and hook up the red wire to the positive (+) pole and the black wire to the negative (-) pole of a 12V motorcycle battery. Make sure you use a 3 Amp in line fuse on the red wire.
Hope this helps!
Regards and good luck / Harry
EDIT: If you want o download the waypoints directly to your PC, you must have HumminbirdPC installed on you PC. HumminbirdPC can be downloaded from the Humminbird website:
Hit the "Support" tab and scroll down to "Product registration". Fill out the form and send it. Then you have created your own account at Humminbird and you can download HumminbirdPC from there.
EDIT II: Another thought that I just had: Is there someone near you who has two interlinked units on his boat? Maybe you can pass your waypoints with the interlink to another unit with a working SD card slot.