Cruising Guides

After our post about the C&D Canal, a reader asked us, "How do you find these places?" The answer is: Cruising Guides!

Cruising guidebooks instantly give you "local knowledge" of an area by providing routes, suggested anchorages, marinas, restaurants, and things to see on shore. They have mileage charts for route planning, charlets to clarify confusing harbors, lists of amenities and phone numbers of marinas, and advice on tides and currents.

These large spiral bound books are available through marine supply stores, book stores, Amazon, and other places. The retail cost is usually $40 to $60. I have purchased only two of them in all our travels because I find them for free at cruiser's book exchanges; you know, those stacks of books, usually in laundry rooms, where well-read paperbacks have been left for sharing.

I found two ICW guides in Florida just before we headed north. I found a set of Chesapeake charts in Norfolk and a Chesapeake guide in Drayden. And when I'm done with them I will put them back in some cruiser's book exchange for the next person to use for free.

This Sea of Cortez guide is one I won't be giving away. The quality is far superior to the others, there are no ads, and who knows, we just may go back there again some time.