Charts & Guides for Western Caribe?

[laika]

I've researched the NIMA (NGA) / BA charts for the area and read thru as many threads as I could find..one could spend a small fortune on charts who's accuracy I gather is somewhat questionable,and it seems some of the cruising guides such as Raines/Freya/Pavlidis and Bauhaus for Panama offer better large scale navigation.

Currently in the SE Bahamas. It's lookin like we're onto the windward passage down to either Jamaica or the south coast of DR. From there, who knows. I'm trying to gather as many materials as practical before heading back down to the boat in two weeks.

Any suggestions welcome! I've got the NV charts and Doyle's guides for the eastern caribe. Explorer charts for the bahamas were obviously wonderful. Should I suck it up and buy the NIMA charts for the western caribe? Are British Admiralty better? It looks like tidesend.com offers reasonable NIMA packages in a couple area folios. They're 2/3s size and black & white, so I know they're not gonna be the bees knees, but hey.

Imray looks great for the entire eastern caribe, but damn..$$!

[sck5]

I got admiralty charts to go to belize but didnt use them all that much. Capt. freya's sketch charts were spot on.

[laika]

So maybe a couple small scale charts and some guides? Bueno?