Guide and Maps for the caribbien

[Matthias_1982]

Hi everybody

We have just purchased an steel yacht from the netherland and we are planning to start this summer towards the caribbien. Now I am looking for maps and guide books. Which one is in your opinion the best one?

Regards and Thank you
Matthias

[skipmac]

Hi Mathias and welcome to the forum.

Which guide book will depend on what part of the Caribbean. I don't know of one that covers everything. You would probably need at least 1-2 different books for the eastern Caribbean which would be the islands from Antiqua down to Trinidad. Different guidebooks for the western Caribbean like Central America and even other books for the larger islands like Cuba, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.

And, although technically not in the Caribbean if you plan to visit the Bahamas as well there are books just to cover the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos islands.

[fjwiley1]

Welcome aboard Matthias......stay tuned......you will hear from many with Great advice....

[Matthias_1982]

Hi Skipmac

We have not decided yet for some particular islands. Since we have several months time I belive we have some time to see different parts of the caribbien. I have never been there, if you have some recommendations that would be nice.
The plan is to leave Cran Canaria towards the carribien late november, spend the time during the season there and go back maybe over Greenland to Europe end of the season.

Regards and Thank you for your help.
Matthias

[Matthias_1982]

Thank you for the nice welcome in the forum. I have read many different things here already. Since it is me first boat and the first bigger trip it is a gread source of information here.

Regards,
Matthias

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by Matthias_1982

Hi Skipmac

We have not decided yet for some particular islands. Since we have several months time I belive we have some time to see different parts of the caribbien. I have never been there, if you have some recommendations that would be nice.
The plan is to leave Cran Canaria towards the carribien late november, spend the time during the season there and go back maybe over Greenland to Europe end of the season.

Regards and Thank you for your help.
Matthias

Hi Mathias. One plan for a several month trip to the Caribbean is to sail to from the Canaries to the Windward Islands, that is the islands in the south end of the chain from Trinidad up to Martinique and island hop north up to the Virgin islands, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic to the Bahamas.

From there you can sail directly back to Europe via Bermuda and the Azores or cruise the US coast and take the northern route back via Greenland.

November departure from the Canaries is a reasonable time to sail east. Going back west then late spring to early summer is the best time. The southern route I would plan late spring but if taking the northern route I would prefer mid summer for better weather.

[sck5]

Every single cruiser I met in the windwards and leewards had Chris Doyle's guides. In fact, the chartlets are good enough you dont really need a lot more than that.

There is a French guide that all the french speaking sailors have but I cant remember who the author is

In the Bahamas you want Explorer charts. No others. There is lots of good info in them also but there are a couple of good guides as well. Dodge's guide for theAbacos and Pavlidis for the exumas. I would never go to Nassau unless you made me so I have no clue about that

[satdiver]

Originally Posted by Matthias_1982

Hi everybody

We have just purchased an steel yacht from the netherland and we are planning to start this summer towards the caribbien. Now I am looking for maps and guide books. Which one is in your opinion the best one?

Regards and Thank you
Matthias

1. First what kid of boat are you sailing more importantly draft and tankage.?

2. How do you rate your Navigational Skills from 1 - 10 in new areas or how confident are you.?

3. Do you have shallow water sailing experience.?

Reason for the questions are:

1. Some routes and places are not as accessible or fun for deep draft boats. Some places nowadays have made pumping out a real pain.

2. Many parts of the Caribbean have shifting shoals and uncharted areas not fit for newer to or even intermediate sailors.

3. In some parts of the Caribbean you can get yourself in a pickle if you miscalculate tides upon passing curtain areas even miles offshore.

I have a friend who sailed a boat with a 10ft draft all over the Caribbean for 7 years with his wife and never hit ground once but he is an exceptional sailor and very knowledgeable of most areas. Curtain things can greatly change your experiance cruising anywhere in the world. I learned the lesson the hard way cruising the Philippines.