More free stuff
Yesterday I spent some time on the United States NOAA Office of Coast Survey website. There is a ton of valuable and important material for download from there and it’s all free! Although I already have paper charts and guides for most of this area, I spent a few minutes downloading ALL of the East Coast charts from New York down to Florida. One thing I have yet to find though is a “master chart” that can show me which number chart I should be referring to for a particular area. There is a Graphical Catalogue online, but I would prefer to have a printed copy, or at the bare minimum a file that I can download, so as to not have to rely upon the internet to reference it.
Additionally, I also found that they have online all the official Coast Pilot books, again available for free download. What is a Coast Pilot?
The United States Coast Pilot® consists of a series of nautical books that cover a variety of information important to navigators of coastal and intracoastal waters and the Great Lakes. Issued in nine volumes, they contain supplemental information that is difficult to portray on a nautical chart.
Topics in the Coast Pilot include channel descriptions, anchorages, bridge and cable clearances, currents, tide and water levels, prominent features, pilotage, towage, weather, ice conditions, wharf descriptions, dangers, routes, traffic separation schemes, small-craft facilities, and Federal regulations applicable to navigation.
Although I would prefer to have a paper copy of all of this stuff, that would add a significant amount of weight, and would cost a significant chunk of coin!
In the “not-free-stuff-for-navigation” category is our new Garmin 546 Chartplotter, which we finally received. In theory it includes all of the charts that I just downloaded but until I hook it up to the boat’s power, I have no way to tell. I was doing some searches online to find out a fair selling price for our older B&W Garmin GPSMAP 180. It’s a good little unit and we have the chart chips for this area to go with it. It would be perfect for someone who spends their time sailing on Lake Ontario and in the 1000 Islands so I doubt we’ll have too much trouble selling it.
Older Garmin 180 on the left; brand new, just-out-of-box 546 on the right.
Great to find your site…your story hits close to home in so many ways!!
In summer 2008 I sold my house, business and virtually everything I owned and together my partner Patty and I took 6 days of sailing lessons drove to Long Beach, Ca and bought a sailboat.
Next we sailed over 1000 miles to La Paz, Mexico. So without writing a novel, it was one hell of an experience!!! If you’re new to this whole thing you’ll learn lots and be prepared for the HUGE Generosity of other cruisers…they are fabulous. WE probably woudn’t have survived the trip if it were not for all the support we got from other cruisers.
I see you don’t have SSB on your list of ‘stuff’, do you have one already? May want to consider one.
Oh yeah, I grew up in Belleville…yeah I know what you’re thinking, that’s why I moved to Victoria.
Happy cruising you guys…
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Live What You Dream,
Joe
Hi Joe
Thanks so much for posting. What you did sounds awesome! I don’t doubt your experiences with helpful cruisers one bit. We have already experienced some amazing generosity just from the posters on this blog, and we haven’t even left yet.
As for the SSB, it is on the wish list to the right but is crossed off because we have actually purchased one. It has not been installed yet and won’t be until we get to Washington, DC. The person we purchased it from, who will also be installing it, is there. I have actually been studying hard for my Ham radio license and will be writing the exam this week.
So, are you back in Victoria now? I assume from your post that you are not still cruising. Feel free to email us as opposed to posting if you prefer.
Mike
The Coast Pilot is revised frequently, and they accept comments from sailors. It is one of the primary information sources for the guides you pay for! It is often superior, in my expereince on the Delmarva Coast, to any other source for out-of-the-way places that fishermen go, but cruisers do not. The ATON information is generally (always) better than other sources – it’s their junk!
I would check the Pilot JUST before you leave. Any hurricane or winter storm alterations will be up-dated, and there will be some.
Hi Drew
Thanks. I actually ended up on the NOAA site yesterday after following one of the links from your blog. 🙂
I did see that they update the coast pilots and planned to, as you suggested, download the latest versions just before we leave.
Mike