Caribbean navigation

71Irwin32 · #1 (**permalink**) 07-10-2011

I'd like some suggestions on navigation books for the Caribbean and South America. Currents, trade winds....time of year. I'm looking at a fairly broad area from the Bahamas, Coata Rica, Grenada to Brazil.

I'd appreciate suggestion of books that Ya'll have found helpful, but mostly maps of currents and seas at different times of the year, etc

Thanks!!

Piratesoul · #2 (**permalink**) 07-10-2011

Get the Explorer Chartbooks for these areas, and use this website for currents, wind, storms. Just change the month in the URL that you are interested in. For example, this URL covers november.
http://msi.nga.mil/MSISiteContent/St...106/106nov.pdf

billyruffn · #3 (**permalink**) 07-10-2011

Get out your credit card and go to Cruising Guides

Also have a look at Chris Parker's Wx book at Marine Weather Center - Marine Weather Books

BTW, its' not easy to get from Grenada to Brazil without going to Bermuda, Canaries and Cape Verde Islands. Buy pilot charts for the North and South Atlantic, study the winds and currents and you'll see what I mean. Grenada to Brazil is a great example of "you can't get there from here" (without bashing your brains out for a month or more).

71Irwin32 · #4 (**permalink**) 07-10-2011

Not really seeing what I'm looking for.....currents, tides, winds and best routes. I don't mind spending some, but it's hard to figure out what these books have in them.

Would really like to find a few large maps with currents and winds.

billyruffn · #5 (**permalink**) 07-10-2011

Quote:

Originally Posted by 71Irwin32

Would really like to find a few large maps with currents and winds.

Go to Search and buy the first two items on the page -- the Atlas of Pilot Charts for the North Atlantic and Caribbean, and the same for the South Atlantic. It will have everything you're looking for.

There's a chart for each month of the year showing.....well, it shows a lot. Spend some time reading the ledgends and you'll figure them out. They are the essential planning tools for long ocean passages.

billyruffn · #6 (**permalink**) 07-10-2011

Better yet.....go here

Maritime Safety Information

They're FREE!

71Irwin32 · #7 (**permalink**) 07-10-2011

Thanks! I was getting lost in the vast amount of data I was getting from google. This looks good.

rikhall · #8 (**permalink**) 07-10-2011

Quote:

Originally Posted by billyruffn

They're FREE!

Billy - free is relative - If I am out there somewhere and need the pilot chart what do I do? If I want to print them all off and bind them - that shoots the heck out of free.

Rik

sck5 · #9 (**permalink**) 07-10-2011

Jimmy Cornells book World Cruising Routes is a summary of lots of information about the routes commonly used to get from one place to another. I have heard people diss his book as merely a rehash of info available elsewhere and that is certainly true - but it is a single volume with a huge amount of information in it distilled from the experience of lots and lots of cruisers - if you are wondering how to get from Point A to Point B it is worth looking at his book to see how most folks do it given prevailing winds and currents. You can certainly get more detail from other sources but Jimmy Cornell would be the first one to tell you that as well

billyruffn · #10 (**permalink**) 07-11-2011

Quote:

Originally Posted by rikhall

Billy - free is relative - If I am out there somewhere and need the pilot chart what do I do? If I want to print them all off and bind them - that shoots the heck out of free.

Rik

Rik, Download them to your hard drive and take them with you. But then, the hard drive can fail.... when paper won't.