Cruising Guide idea

[Godot]

I have an idea that is just beginning to tickle the back of my brain, and thought I throw out some early thoughts...

I'm annoyed by cruising guides.  The guides I have seem to focus on facilities over everything else.  I suppose that makes a lot of sense as facilities are advertisers, and large hunks of the cruising public spend their time jumping from marina to marina.

I don't.  In fact, I've never stayed at a marina that wasn't my home base.  So I'd be interested in a guide that suits my style of cruising.  Call it "The Frugal Sailors Guide to the Chesapeake" (or Buzzards Bay, or Maine, or Florida, or Puget Sound or whatever).

In this dream book, what I would like to see focus on is good anchorages, cheap occasional dockage (the city docks in Baltimore are inexpensive, for example), free or cheap dinghy docks or beaches or road heads or other (legal) ways to land from the boat,  and interesting and cheap shoreside activities.  Off the beaten track gunkholes that only the smaller boat can sneak into would be interesting, too. Notes on whether the water is generally considered healthy for swimming  would be nice.  You know, stuff the poor sailor cares about. 

Maybe something like this already exists.  If so, point me at it.  Otherwise, I've been thinking it might be worthwhile to setup a wiki or something to consolidate such information.  Maybe even set up a way to publish it on the cheap (the frugal sailor may not have access to the internet while sailing).

Ideas?

[Auspicious]

Adam -

For the Chesapeake, try the Gunkholer's Guide to the Chesapeake: http://www.amazon.com/Cruising-Chesapeake-Gunkholers-William-Shellenberger/dp/0071363718 . It is an outstanding guide to every puddle and rivulet on the Bay. I've been very impressed with it. I'd really like to meet Bill some day and talk to him.

The Explorer Charts for the Bahamas are pretty good there.

Don't know anything for LIS or NE, or the Carolina Outer Banks.

sail fast, dave

[Godot]

Ah, interesting.  I will have to order that book and check it out.

[Captain Smollett]

Claiborne Young's cruising guides seem to me cover anchorages pretty well and give good details for off-the-beaten-path cruising.  His are excellently written books.

Claiborne's Online Info

[Auspicious]

Ah, interesting.  I will have to order that book and check it out.

You can borrow mine to look at if you like.

[mrb]

Good idea on setting up site to gather and share info.

Pacific N.W. has Charlies Charts which take you from Washington up through Inside Passage of B.C. to Alaska.  Hand drawn charts of harbors and anchorages with info on difficult passes, supplies and services with GPS info.  Also gives views of entrances and so forth.

Maybe East coast is ready for an Adams Charts.

[wildman]

Maybe something like this already exists.  If so, point me at it.  Otherwise, I've been thinking it might be worthwhile to setup a wiki or something to consolidate such information.  Maybe even set up a way to publish it on the cheap (the frugal sailor may not have access to the internet while sailing).

Ideas?

There's a worldwide cruising wiki already created that I've been watching for a few years, but it doesn't seem to be getting populated with local knowledge (at least for the places I've checked).  HTH, Paul

http://www.captainwiki.com/index.php5?title=Online_Cruising_Guides_And_Sailing_Blogs_For_The_Cruising_Community

[Amgine]

CaptainWiki seems like a great idea, and I've been watching it a couple years too.

I know earlier on the main person behind it dumped a huge database of information about a thousands of ports into his system. I wasn't thrilled with the setup, but I am very familiar with the software so it's easy for anyone to edit.

The nice thing is, anyone can decide what information is important *to them* to include. So if I think marking great anchoring waypoints is really important, I can do just that. Or if I want to add comments to marinas/fuel docks/dining ashore articles, I can do that. Someone else might only want to edit sailing terms, or how to replace waterpump impellers, or how to catch sea bass.

It's sort of like organizing all the information from Sailfar messages into a book, easily referenced rather than spread out amongst a thousand threads.

[Soundbounder]

I would focus on an area that you have some expertise in.
That sounds to me like the Chesapeake.

Your personal knowledge will be the strength of the site.
To simply put together a bunch of info on a coastline that you are only
somewhat familiar with, is not a good idea.
Unless you have personally sailed into these particular anchorages,
you are just repeating a bunch of info that may or may not be true.
It will show through.

I am disappointed by many of the cruising guides as well.
They are simply vehicles for their advertisers.