Books on navigation and offshore passages

[camaraderie]

FoxGlove...read the book, did the trip and met the man in Luperon. Lots of good stuff, but lots of opinion also which you need not follow depending on your boat and sailing preferences and the weather forecast.
Example: The day we left Luperon bound for PR...we had Chris Parker's forecast and knew our boat and decided to go well offshore and cross the Mona passage in one shot. Result...easy passage and no problems. Four boats that left the harbor with us following VanSant's advice all had a rough voyage complete with equipment failures and a lightning strike.
Next time...the reverse might be true. The point is that VanSant is revered as "the expert" and indeed has a lot of experience BUT you are the captain of your vessel and should never make decisions based on one source. I would also warn that VanSant is a resident of the DR and paints a much rosier picture of conditions there than we found.

[cassycc36]

I took a coast guard auxilary piloting class and it was great. the united states power squadrons also teaches navigation classes including celestial. the textbooks are clear and laid out logically. I bet you could find copies of those on the internet without actually signing up to take a class. This may sound silly but do you have Chapman's?

[sailandoar]

Nautical Almanac (pick one -> east/west/carribbian): tide-pilot stuff - radio weather fax freqs - current tables/ charts - etc
Nautical Companion: nav-piloting- rules_of_road-etc-celestial sight reduction procedure -weather
Astro Navigation Almanac: celestial tables - formulas for pocket calc sight reduction instead of tables - etc

If I could only have these three books it would be enough!
Granted I would want 50 more, but these three would do it.

[KarlTomasik]

Yes, we do have Chapman's! As well as This Old Boat and a number of other assorted nautical titles, charts, the MapTech Embassy Guides through Chesapeake, etc. I've been meaning to pick up the Skipper Bob book as well as the Doyle guides to the VIs. I'd also LOVE to make it to the SSCA table at the Annapolis Boat Show, but I doubt we'll be there in time. We kind of wanted to wander around and enjoy everything rather than make it to Annapolis in four days. But when is the boat show? The beginning of October, right?

[KarlTomasik]

Thanks for everyone's help, but I still have a question about the British Admiralty Routes for the World--is this still a valid reference book, or has World Cruising Routes by Jimmy Cornell replaced it? Is it worth buying the 1973 edition for $30, or do I need the 2004 edition?

[sailaway21]

Bowditch, vols 1 & 2, the American Practical Navigator, is the bible of marine navigation. Used editions are fine, it takes so long to update it that they don't come out with a new one but every ten or twenty years. This is not the best book to learn celestial navigation, there are many previously mentioned that are better or at least more concise. But this is the sum total of navigational knowledge accumulated over the past two hundred years. Vol. 2 , old ho 9, used to be just Bowditch tables and has now been changed to include articles as well, primarily piloting oriented. Once you see how easy bow and beam bearing are you'll wonder why nobody talks about them. Vol 2 will teach you that and alot more. Think of Bowditch as your dictionary-it'll help you with everything else you read. Guy