Pacific Cruising Notes
General
There are several Cruising Guides to crossing the Pacific
that give essential information about selecting a route, choosing when
to go,
and basic information about major ports.
- Pacific
Crossing Guide - Michael Pocock (good for route planning and
major ports)
- Landfalls
Of
Paradise - Earl Hinz
- South
Pacific
Anchorages - Warwick Clay (brief info on many anchorages)
- Charlie's
Charts Of Polynesia - Charles Wood (good east of Cook Islands)
We used these guides a lot. Then we had a few more localized
guides for
some island groups:-
French Polynesia
- Guide
to
Navigation and Tourism in French Polynesia - Patrick
Bonnette
Tonga
- Sailingbird
Guide To The Kingdom Of Tonga - Charles Paul &
Katherine L. Pham-Paul
- Cruising
Guide for the Kingdom of Tonga - Ken Hellewell
Fiji
- Fiji
Cruising
Notes - Phil Cregeen
Vanuatu
- Cruising
Guide to Vanuatu - published on CD
New Caledonia
- Cruising
Guide to New Caledonia - published on CD
Caribbean Cruising Notes
We have Cruising Guides place we have visited in the
Caribbean
with the sole exception of the Cayman Islands. There is no Cayman
Islands
Cruising Guide, presumably few cruisers go there. Certainly there is
not much
point if you don't dive.
These are the
cruising guides we've relied upon...
The Bahamas
- Explorer
Charts (3 books).
On the Bahamas Banks, you need depth information more than anything
else. These are the best charts we've found.
- Bahamas
Guides by Stephen Pavlidis (3 books). These guides complement the
Explorer Charts by giving more information on land facilities and often
better small scale charts of anchorages.
Turks & Caicos
- Charts
by Wavey Line Publishing (3 charts). These charts even show many
dive site moorings.
- Turks
& Caicos Guide by
Stephen Pavlidis.
Jamaica
- Yachtsman's Guide to Jamaica
Mexico and Belize
- Cruising
Guide to Belize and Mexico's Caribbean Coast by Freya Rauscher. This guide covered most of what
we needed while cruising Mexico and Belize but it is not up to the
standards of detail and accuracy we got used to in the
Bahamas.
- What
helped most was meeting other cruisers on the way south who could give
us useful waypoints. Most of our navigation around Lighthouse Reef,
where we spent a month diving, was based on waypoints we were given by
s/v Dreamer. (The coral head collision was not their fault! :-)
Honduras Bay Islands
- We
could find no in-print cruising guide to the Bay Islands. While in Isla
Mujeres, Mexico, we asked around (in conjunction with other cruisers)
and photocopied in town pages from a ten year old Nigel Calder guide.
Although better than nothing, it was clearly out of date and sometimes
less than useful. However, we were happy to have something.
Eastern Caribbean
- Cruising
Guide to Puerto Rico
by Stephen Pavlidis.
- Cruising
Guide to the Virgin Islands by Nancy & Simon Scott.
- Grenada
to Virgin Islands
by Jacques Patuelli.
- Cruising
Guide to the Leeward Islands by Chris Doyle.
- Sailors
Guide to the Windward Islands by Chris Doyle.
- Cruising
Guide to Trinidada & Tobago by Stephen Pavlidis