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Cruising Guide idea

Started by Godot, January 26, 2009, 04:59:02 PM

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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?
Adam
Bayfield 29 "Seeker"
Middle River, Chesapeake Bay

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
S/V Auspicious
HR 40 - a little big for SailFar but my heart is on small boats
Chesapeake Bay

Beware cut and paste sailors.

Godot

Ah, interesting.  I will have to order that book and check it out.
Adam
Bayfield 29 "Seeker"
Middle River, Chesapeake Bay

Captain Smollett

#3
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
S/V Gaelic Sea
Alberg 30
North Carolina

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.  -Mark Twain

Auspicious

Quote from: Godot on January 26, 2009, 05:24:01 PM
Ah, interesting.  I will have to order that book and check it out.

You can borrow mine to look at if you like.
S/V Auspicious
HR 40 - a little big for SailFar but my heart is on small boats
Chesapeake Bay

Beware cut and paste sailors.

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

Quote from: Godot on January 26, 2009, 04:59:02 PM
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
Paul Miller
s/v Lazy Susan
1987 Nimble 20 Yawl
Deland, FL

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.