Cuba charts are available from
Blue Water Charts and on the
internet. You should be able to buy them in
Canada without any difficulty. The nautical charts put out by the Cuban
government are excellent.
- - There are no "up-to-date" charts for the
Dominican Republic - guide
books are about the only way to get specific harbor/bay information. The old "DMA charts exist for the "big picture" and not much has changed. Wavey line Charts makes the only "new" charts of the D.R. and you can find them in most chart stores.
- - All the
Puerto Rico Charts are free from NOAA if you are using an electronic charting system. You can get free charting systems like Sea Clear II or the newest
OpenCPN and run them on your notebook computer.
- - Assuming you are going to run the Cuban coastline west and around to the south side of Cuba - you would then might stop in Port Antonio,
Jamaica or just cross the southern end of the Windward
Passage and track along the south side of
Haiti and the
Dominican Republic. See the DR Cruising Guide for an excellent treatment of the South Coast of the D.R. As with all
Cruising Guides things are always changing between the publication date and the
current time, so be wary of possible different ways things are now from they way there are described in any Cruising Guide.
- - If you are intending to take the hard way eastwards along the Cuban north coast to the northern side of the D.R. - good luck! That is both upwind and up
current.
- - If you are in a hurry to get to
Venezuela, then from the eastern end of the D.R. you could beat south to the A.B.C. Islands (Aruba,
Curacao, Bonaire) and then truck east along the Venezuelan Islands to whatever your
destination there is located.
- - Also from
Puerto Rico and the
Virgin Islands you can also
head directly south to Venezuela. The other
route (long one) involves following all the
Leeward Islands to the
Windward Islands south to
Grenada and then heading west to Venezuela.
Linear Mode
Recent Discussions