Route Planning Materials

[Macopa]

While fully embracing the crusing attitude, I have an idea where I want to go but no certian timeframe. The more I read about circumnavigation, the more I realize that there are certian seasons/times of year much better suited to sailing certian places and direction than others. Is there any sort of authority on the subject? A certian book perhaps? I'm looking for something with routes, information on seasons in certian areas, best sailing time/direction, etc... I would prefer something in print form although I imagine a book with that info could be quite large... Any suggestions?

[btrayfors]

Ocean Passages for the World, currently unavailable.

Or, Cornell's "World Cruising Routes" : Amazon.com: World Cruising Routes: Jimmy Cornell: Books

Bill

[Charlie]

Cornell's book is very good for an initial understanding of where to go at what time. His book is based on a circumnavigation or Atlantic and Pacific Circles. It doesn't have all the detail on Specific areas such as you would find in Charlie's Charts etc.

[Pblais]

Here is a web site you may want to look at:

Maritime Safety Information

From the menu of options you will see the Altlas of Pilot charts. Jimmy is a pretty smart guy and almost all the information you see in Cruising Route books is derived from these free charts and the information you can download here. They do take some skill to work with and you may find the for pay guides are easier to understand.

This atlas gives you maps of wind trends by season for almost evrywhere. They don't actually predict but they just give you the trends. That is all the guides do any way. You can also get the PDF version of Bowditch and a lot of seriously great things needed for navigation from this link. This is all free stuff.