Cruising guides

[wassupkris]

what are the best cruising guides out there? i'm starting in the upper east coast and going south. thanks

[CaptainForce]

If you're following the ICW route; then, the best guide would be both the anchorage and marina guides by Skipper Bob. 'take care and joy, Aythya crew

[labatt]

Ditto on the Skipper Bob guides - get both of them. They were invaluable. The Waterway Guides have some good reference material in them, but we found that the marina lists were more about sponsors than anything else. The anchorage info was very weak. I believe Young's cruising guide's for Florida are some of the better ones for FL.

[SOUNDBOUNDER]

A Cruising Guide To The New England Coast is very good
for info on Maine to New York Harbor

[joethecobbler]

I was not impressed with any of the guides we had access to as I found that the lag time from gathering the info to getting it to print and distibution made it unreliable. Next time I will rely more on contacting other cruisers and using the internet mapping and overlaying the street maps w/ the waterway maps. This will allow a broader look at the ares adjacent to the waterway that cruisers are typicaly looking for. for instance grocery,fuel,stores as well as any local information on public transportation options (unless you have a car to use). Even the other cruisers , we found, were largely in the dark concerning the amenities and options available.
As far as Anchorages/ and anchoring , the guides are just that , A guide. I traveled w/ pets and prefer to sleep at night, so I rarely did overnight sailing and anchored most nights to facilitate making a landfall for the animals as well as other purposes (gather wood for woodstove, for example) As well as just look around new places. I found that an old guide from years past, often found at used book stores and garage sales for little or nothing, offered about as reliable and useful information as the "new" ones printed for the current year ! Once your comfortable using your ground tackle it is easy to determine possible anchoring locations just by looking at the charts.
I would study the areas I planned on stopping and choose several possibilities then upon arrival make a decision based on conditions.
Access to the internet makes it easy to locate land based services and determine the best place to make landfall.

[AlanBrown]

If you're a Boat US member, bring a copy of their "Membership Services Guide" with you. You will find a list of marinas along the way that offer fuel and dockage discounts to members. For example, I just found a 25% dockage discount at a marina I'll be tying up at in the Bahamas in May. Good deal!

As far as ICW cruising guides, Skipper Bob's and Waterway Guides are probably the best. Using these guides I was able to find free dockage in Elizabeth City, NC, Southport, NC, and Myrtle Beach, SC and plenty of useful information about anchorages.