Cruising Guides to Western Caribbean

[ess105]

There are lot's of guides for Windwards/Leewards/Virgins, etc. No problems there. Does anyone know of any good guides for Western Caribbean / Central America - perhaps including the ABCs.

[TaoJones]

Pavlidis is highly regarded. Here's a link:

Island Hopping Home Page

TaoJones

[ess105]

Those look to be more for Bahamas / Puerto Rico, etc. Does he do any for W Carib?

[TaoJones]

The description for his Northwest Caribbean Guide indicates it covers "...the Northern Shore of Jamaica, the Cayman Islands (the ONLY guide to do so in ANY detail, you might be surprised at the anchorages available for drafts of less than 6'), the Bay Islands of Honduras (the newest data and charts available since 1990), the mainland of Honduras, and of course Guatemala and the Río Dulce."

It does not cover Belize nor Mexico, and of course doesn't reach down to the ABCs.

TaoJones

PS: Here's some info from another thread:

Originally Posted by GordMay

Apparently, it [Pavlidis' Northwest Caribbean Guide] doesn’t cover Belize, which is covered here:
Cruising Guide to Belize and Mexico's Caribbean Coast
Including Guatemala's Rio Dulce
by Captain Freya Rauscher
Cruising Guide to Belize & Mexico's Caribbean Coast - 3rd Ed.

[ess105]

Thanks Tao. Looks like my prior searching was not exact enough.

[El Jeem]

As Tao points out the guide does not cover Belize... I use Rauchers guide for the Belize area. I find between the two of these they cover the Western Carib.

[sck5]

Rauscher's guide is very good. Be aware that chartplotters lie in Belize. Our charter boat had a raymarine plotter and I had my Garmin handheld. Neither was entirely accurate though the Garmin seemed a bit better. The problem is that the charts they are based on havent been updated in many many years. I had the Admiralty paper charts also (the best for Belize) and some parts of them dated from lead line surveys in the 1840's! But the waypoints in the Rauscher guide were spot on, at least all the ones I used.