Nautical charts for Lesser Antilles

I'll check with some people at work and get back to you on Monday.

check out www.bluewaterweb.com

Edward,
We used an old guide book going into St. Kitts in the pitch black of night, and when we got up in the morning discovered we were anchored about 10 feet from a bunch of pilings, for a new pier, not on our chart. That could have hurt! The age of the charts won't matter for open water sailing, but do be sure to have current guide books.

What are your plans?

Perhaps my last "great adventure." My dream is to cruise the islands solo in Dolce Vita, my Hunter 376, one island at a time. It will be many months before I feel I can take on that challenge. I'm just beginning to learn the boat.

I'd like to design a plan that would take a day to sail from one island to the next, avoiding getting into and out of port at night.

A problem in ordering charts on line is sellers don't provide thumbnails, so one doesn't know what the chart actually covers. Anyone know of a source that actually shows thumbnails of the charts?

That's a beautiful boat, and sounds like an amazing trip!

Sounds like a great trip! I don't know anything about nautical charts, but a quick peek at Amazon revealed some for sale with pictures. eBay might be another place to look. Good luck!

Edward, I would think a GPS system would be very valuable with plans like yours. Of course, I would still want to have physical charts to check against - I certainly would not trust a GPS, since I see my TomTom needs the satellite co-ordinates downloaded on a regular basis, but I would use it to get a general idea...

Here it seems that just the maps for a specific GPS costs $150:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0019R1TUS/ref=asc_df_B0019R1TUS1355374?smid=A30DGGRQPDAP9Y&tag=nextagusmp0405870-20&linkCode=asn&creative=395105&creativeASIN=B0019R1TUS

Wouldn't pull up anchor without a gps, but truly it does get comical listening to how some depend on them, to the exclusion of all other navigation.

We knew a couple once who could not sail from Elephant Bay, STT to Water Bay, STT, in broad daylight, because they didn't have the gps coordinates.

We listened to a boat approaching Margarita Island (at night) a few years back, on the radio begging for someone to give him the gps coordinates, so he could come into the anchorage. For some reason, no one could/would give him the info. He did not anchor until the next morning.

Lots of stories like that, but the bottom line is we wouldn't dream of depending on just the gps. You must know how to navigate without it.

I will say, though, our first experience with gps was so cool. We had just taken delivery on our boat and were bringing her up the Intracoastal Waterway. She came equipped with a rather hi-tech gps. Playing around with it, and decided that according to plan, there should be a buoy about 50 yards off our port side. Came up top and looked, and sure enough, there it was. I know that sounds pretty lame, but this was almost 20 years ago. We were impressed.

Hey Edward,

Sounds like a great adventure!

If you're interested and don't mind waiting until the Christmas rush is over I have a handful of digital chart-packs (for use on a computer) I would be happy to put in the mail and send to you. My wife and I finished our Caribbean cruising last year and I have these left, actually they were never used between our paper charts and our chart-plotter. I was planning on selling them off but between you and I (and the whole internet I guess) I'm just to lazy. The chart-packs I have are:

CYC Charts
-Reg 11- Virgin Islands: St Thomas to Sombrero (2008)
-Reg 12- Leeward Islands: Anguilla to Antigua (2008)

MapTech
-Reg 11.4- Windward Islands: St Lucia to Grenada (2006)
-Reg 10.0- Puerto Rico: Dominican Republic to Spanish Virgin Islands (2006)
-Reg 11.3- Lee & Windward Islands: Guadeloupe to Martinique (2006)

This pretty much covers you everywhere from the DR down to Grenada which is a pretty good size chunk of water. Like I said before I'll give them to you if you don't mind waiting until after Christmas. I don't have enough Cruzan rum left here in California to get me to stand in that pre-Christmas post office line again this year!

Oh, and like Juanita said.. wouldn't pull up anchor without GPS these days but also don't rely completely on it. No substitute for a paper chart, guide book and carefully applied eyeballs.

Cheers!
California Dave & Amanda
S/V Lorelei / M/V Cascade

Fantastic! Thanks!

I have 3 GPS devices on board but I need to make the computer connections.

One of my co-workers' husbands owns a nautical store here on STT. But, they may not have what you need (I asked for MAPS - not CHARTS which I'm finding out are two different things!). But, Island Marine here on STT has CHARTS (he was smart enough to correct me!) going all the way to Trinidad.

I'll check with you after I leave work to see if you need any, because I'm meeting someone in that area after work.

Edward - I have sailed STT - Grenada- STT a few times and use the chart packs from www.nv-charts.com as my primary paper charts - well worth the money - available at local marine stores here and very comprehensive on each island.
Indispensable in my opinion along with some cruising guides and your GPS. It is an excellent sail if you take your time and explore each island - It takes time and money at each C + I -- so stay a while.
The last trip I took was 2 couples on a 40' sloop and we never tied off to a dock once in 3 months. A watermaker is a giant plus or a very easily hoisted rain catching awning. We bought diesel in 5 Gal. jugs from land based gas stations that seemed to have much better fuel - [they sell diesel to their regular customers] not transient traffic.
If you insist on American brands food etc. can be expensive - buy what the locals eat or drink.
Once you are comfortable - leaving at night to get to a new place in daylight is not too bad - just scope it out ahead of time. Good Luck and Enjoy.

Thanks, Exit Zero, for the tip!

Nautical Publications is in Newport, RI, where I learned the basics of sailing in 12' and 19' Rhodes O'Day sloops long ago.

http://www.nv-charts.com/cyc_charts.php?PHPSESSID=ie55ggro054vc0jkdfoai82cl2 shows what I was looking for: a picture of the available charts.

Thanks to everyone who offered help! 🙂