A Good Pacific Guidebook ?

[Stella Polaris]

I'm planning the trip into the Pacific and though Jimmy Cornell's World Cruising Routes is a big help, I would like to get my hands on the most recent and best South Pacific guide.

There doesn't appear to be many choices, but they are costly, so it would be great to hear if there is one that's considered the best one.

[barnakiel]

I do not like Cornell's book. Found it way inaccurate too many times.

For general info the Ocean Passages of the World. For Pacific area my fave is the Pacific Crossing Guide.

I also like reading the Landfalls of Paradise - it is like Street's guides for the West Indies, not much use but fun and educative.

b

[YourOldNemesis]

Charlie's Charts

[Dave852]

Charlies Charts for sure if I could only take one.

You may consider "Guide to Navigation and Tourism In French Polynesia" by Patrick Bonnette and Emmanuel Deschamps.
Also "Exploring the Marquesas Islands" by Joe Russell.

[savoir]

Landfalls of Paradise is wayyyyyy out of date. I would only recommend it to those interested in the history of the various island countries. Pacific Crossing Guide is much more up to date. It focuses principally on the major ports of each country rather than the boonies. Cornell is up to date and accurate but way to general to be of much value.

I recommend a selection of the Moon Handbook series combined with South Pacific Anchorages by Warwick Clay. They are the only books you will need.

Noonsite is the best online source of information about the Pacific.

[GordMay]

These free guides may get you started:

Cruising the Coconut Milk Run ~ Ken Machtley and Cathy Siegismund (“Felicity”) .svfelicity.com/articles/milkrun.pdf
➥ http://www.svfelicity.com/articles/milkrun.pdf

The Coconut Milk Run ~ Jan & Signe Twardowski (“Raven”) .ravencruise.com/the_coconut_milk_run.htm
➥ The Coconut Milk Run

The Admiral’s Version of The Coconut Milk Run .ravencruise.com/the_admirals_version_of_the_coconut_milk_run.htm
➥ The Admiral’s Version of The Coconut Milk Run

[Fast Forward]

We agree with SAVOIR. We bought 3 of the books mentioned above and hardly referred to them - whenever we did need to refer to any info, it was out of date or there was not enough of it. I too would recommend simply buying country guides or a general Pacific guide as the info is way more relevant - ebay is pretty reasonable. But I realise you might feel more secure with just one on board - we'd heard that Charlies Charts was good. The information on Noonsite is also excellent.

We have good info on our webiste too! www.sailingfastforward.com

Enjoy crossing the Pacific - it's home to some of the world's most amazingly beautiful islands and people.

[JARogers]

In addition to cruising guide books, the US NGA Sailing Directions have valuable information that every voyaging boater should carry aboard. They are updated regularly and the current version for the south Pacific islands is dated 2008. It is available on CD in PDF format on ebay for less than $10. The CD also includes the Planning Guides and Light Lists for the same areas. ...Jim

[EllanVannin]

I too looked at buying Jimmy Cornell and thought it was awfully general for alot of places to warrant the purchase cost and the same for the Pacific Crossing Guide but like the idea of having a book on hand. Am I wrong in thinking that Noonsite is the web version Jimmy's work and hence realtively easy to access as a second resource?

On talking to cruisers when we were in Fiji at Christmas 09 all of them were unanimous in their praise of Charlie's Charts. So on that advice this is the guide book I will buy for our passage as advice from folk actually currently sailing seemed wise to follow

:-)

[Laidback]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

I do not like Cornell's book. Found it way inaccurate too many times.
b

Which book by Cornell ? It would be useful to have some examples of
"way inaccurate too many times"

[EllanVannin]

I am presuming we are talking about Jimmy Cornell's World Cruising Handbook.

I agree it would be interesting to know in what way the handbook is inaccurate

Clare:-)

[MarkJ]

Re: Jimmy Cornell's books.

We don't have World Cruising Routes as we can't afford it. Anyway, we want to decide our own route, not go round the world via Jimmy!

Sometimes we hear what Jimmy says and we still do our own thing.
Panama to Galapagos is a great example: He says to head south till you hit Equador before you turn towards the Galapagos. We, of course, being our independant muffins we are decided not to waste the sea miles but go in a straight line.


Who was right?




OK well we did still get there! It just took a little longer!!

You may as well say the compass is wrong before I would say Jimmy Cornell is wrong.

And World Cruising Handbook in one book gives you a little bit about every country you are likely to go to. It can't do all about every anchorage, but will get you to a place where you can get local charts, pilots and advice

[Laidback]

If one has never read "the World Cruising Routes" 6th edition - VERY hard to to determine if Jimmy Cornell is right or wrong.
It still would be very useful to have some examples of his
"way inaccurate too many times"
At least then one could double check the inaccuracies and do some additional research before taking off completely blind.

[Patrick_DeepPlaya]

Originally Posted by JARogers

In addition to cruising guide books, the US NGA Sailing Directions have valuable information that every voyaging boater should carry aboard. They are updated regularly and the current version for the south Pacific islands is dated 2008. It is available on CD in PDF format on ebay for less than $10. The CD also includes the Planning Guides and Light Lists for the same areas. ...Jim

You can get the US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Sailing Directions directly from them by going to the US NGA Maritime Safety Information Nautical Publications Page

There are two publications you want to look at Sailing Directions Enroute and Sailing Directions Planning. Select them in the drop down on the page I linked to above.

This is also where you can get Chart #1, Coastal Pilots, Sight Reduction Tables, etc for FREE.