Want To Buy: WTB Region 2 chartbook and other east coast stuff

[skipgundlach]

Hi, all,

We've decided to do the US again, and my missing chartbook is the one from Block Island to the Canadian border, Maptech Region 2.

I'd also be interested in (cheap! - sorry) guidebooks for the coastal region. We don't expect to do any of the ditch (we're a sailboat, after all) so stuff unique to that isn't of interest.

Please copy anything here to my email as I detest web interfaces. skipgundlach@gmail.com - thanks.

We're in Vero Beach, probably until the end of April, unless we complete all the stuff we're trying to buy earlier and weather suits for heading north...

L8R

Skip

[Kettlewell]

Even if you don't plan on doing any of the ICW, be sure to have charts of all the inlets and probably the inside too. You never know when you'll have to duck inside to avoid bad weather. I often go inside and outside both, depending on what is best for the available weather. But, going north you get to ride the Gulf Stream, which is always fun as long as the weather holds.

[skipgundlach]

Originally Posted by Kettlewell

Even if you don't plan on doing any of the ICW, be sure to have charts of all the inlets and probably the inside too. You never know when you'll have to duck inside to avoid bad weather. I often go inside and outside both, depending on what is best for the available weather. But, going north you get to ride the Gulf Stream, which is always fun as long as the weather holds.

We'll be gunkholing in a harbor sense, rather than making a passage.

Part of the objective of this cruise is to finish shaking down all the changes which were made over the last two years. The very little of that which has occurred (meaning we've not done much cruising) has been VERY productive. Every external rotating part on the engine failed (alternator, starter, raw water pump), the forward bilge pump, the forward Y valve, the grill regulator, the propane solenoid, the refrigeration (wouldn't make cold on our return from a wedding trip) and a variety of other smaller things has convinced us that being close, rather than in a passage, would be a good thing.

We did a passage from Fernandina Beach FL to Portland ME once and rode the GS all the way to Cape Cod before turning left. However, this time, we'll be sticking close.

The chartkits show the entrances, and with 7', if it's not in the Chartkit, it's too small for me to risk.

But we intend doing a LOT of local touring, which is why a set of the various local guides would be interesting...

L8R

Skip

[Kettlewell]

Seven feet is tough in the ICW, and I suspect your mast height might be up there too. Are you going up the Chesapeake? Draft can be an issue there in a lot of the nicer harbors.

For what it's worth, here are some suggestions for guidebooks from the Chesapeake north. Naturally, for the ICW I like my own boooks! For the bay I would recommend having Schellenberger's Cruising the Chesapeake and Chesapeake Bay Magazine's latest guide. The former for gunkholes and the latter for the marinas and restaurants. The Northern Waterway Guide is useful from Cape May north, and for Maine A Cruising Guide to the Maine Coast, that was originally done by Hank and June Taft but is now by Curtis Rindlaub. I also like A Cruising Guide to Narragansett Bay and the South Coast of Massachusetts. I also carry an old copy of Duncan and Ware's A Cruising Guide to the New England Coast. A copy of the Eldridge Tide and Pilot book comes in very handy (the yellow one). If you want to do a lot of LI Sound stuff the Embassy guide is pretty good for that area.

[skipgundlach]

Originally Posted by Kettlewell

Seven feet is tough in the ICW, and I suspect your mast height might be up there too. Are you going up the Chesapeake? Draft can be an issue there in a lot of the nicer harbors.

We're high and low, and need the 65' bridges at less than high water, sometimes.

We did part of the Chessie last time and had no issues, other than at the town wall in one of the interior; when the tide went out, we grounded and then heeled, held on by our mooring lines.

At another, where Bush was speaking on the Rockfish sport fishing industry, we were prevented from moving from a high spot at high tide and became grounded in the mud.

Neither event was enough to deter us from going back this time :{))

L8R

Skip

[Kettlewell]

If you do decide to go inside from Beaufort to Norfolk to avoid Cape Hatteras watch out for the Wilkerson Bridge at Mile 125.9. It's listed at 64 feet, but I have seen as little as 62 feet there when there is a wind-driven water change. No tide at that location either.

[skipgundlach]

Originally Posted by Kettlewell

If you do decide to go inside from Beaufort to Norfolk to avoid Cape Hatteras watch out for the Wilkerson Bridge at Mile 125.9. It's listed at 64 feet, but I have seen as little as 62 feet there when there is a wind-driven water change. No tide at that location either.

Ya, we've been through that one, a nail biter.

Of course, without someone hanging off the bridge, or one of us on a bosun's chair up there, as we pass, we really don't know our clearance.

Nominally, we're 62 feet, but that's at DWL, which has risen some unknown number of inches, but we consider ourselves a 7' draft compared to a 6' DD - which probably puts our mast at someplace between 61 and 62 feet up. The tallest above that is the VHF whip, and slightly shorter, and rigid, is the WiFi antenna (you can see the top of our mast setup by rolling your mouse around on the Island Time site Flying Pig WiFi).

We put nearly 1000 hours on our Perkins in the first year due to the ICW. We've put 400 hours on in the last 4 years, and we'd prefer to keep it under 100 a year. The ditch precludes that :/ [banghead]

L8R

Skip