Looking for cruising guides for US east coast and I wondered which were the best. Thanks for help and opinions.
Cruising Guides for US East coast
- Thread starter essman
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Using this one right now: http://www.landfallnavigation.com/atlanticicw.html . It was great from Norfolk to where the boat is near Beaufort, NC. And I will continue to use it from there to Florida beginning in January. I also have one entitled "Atlantic Anchorages" or something like that. I have guides for everything from Lake Erie to where the boat is. Wish I could remember all the titles. But I think they are all from Landfall.
The east coast is so full of places that it is divided into regions, If you search for cruising guides for the Chesapeake bay you will get several hits the same for North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, New Jersey, Long Island Sound, Narrgansett Bay,RI, Massachusetts bay, Cape Cod Bay, And the coast of Maine is as convoluted as the Seattle-San Jaun-Vancover region.
Guide
The one I use is the Waterway Guide, Northern Edition, Long Island Sound and North East waters. I'm happy with it.
The one I use is the Waterway Guide, Northern Edition, Long Island Sound and North East waters. I'm happy with it.
Coastal guides
We used the Skipper Bob guides on our cruise from Massachusetts to the Gulf coast of Florida. They were highly recommended by other cruisers on our trip north. If you like to anchor out, they give you numerous locations to spend the night, and rate them by holding conditions, current, etc. They also include rates for marinas and whether fuel, food, etc., is available. We found them to be an excellant supplement to the Waterway Guide. They are updated frequently. E-mail at SkipperBob@att.net.
We used the Skipper Bob guides on our cruise from Massachusetts to the Gulf coast of Florida. They were highly recommended by other cruisers on our trip north. If you like to anchor out, they give you numerous locations to spend the night, and rate them by holding conditions, current, etc. They also include rates for marinas and whether fuel, food, etc., is available. We found them to be an excellant supplement to the Waterway Guide. They are updated frequently. E-mail at SkipperBob@att.net.
Coast Pilot free online. A lot of the stuff found in some cruising guides come from this source. It is written more for commercial traffic but has a lot of information ans is worth far more than it costs. http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/nsd/coastpilot4.htm
Skipper Bobs
I second the recommendation for Skipper Bob. For the ICW on the east coast they are hard to beat.
I second the recommendation for Skipper Bob. For the ICW on the east coast they are hard to beat.
For New York and New England, a CRUISING GUIDE TO THE NEW ENGLAND COAST by Duncan, Fenn, and Ware is hard to beat. IMO, it is much better than those glossy types you see at West Marine selling for $45.
Complementary
I have this one too. The text is excellent, but it lacks the image details of the Waterway guide. I use both together in planning a trip or entering a new harbor. It is also quite dated. I believe the last update came out in 2002.
That's true!
Cruising Guide To The New England Coast is only updated about once or twice a decade, plus it doesn't have aerial photos and charts to show marina locations. Waterway Guide is very good too.
My gripe is with some of these cruising guides that have been put out by some of the chart companies. I bought two of them at a yard sale and all I can say is that I am glad I didn't spend $40 on them. They look nice, and are easy to use, but much of the info is garbage.
I get the impression that they never actually cruised to these locations; they simply went online and looked up the info. Much of the information provided seems to just be a "tip of the hat" towards their advertisers.
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