Sailing Geography Question

t1mm

Hi all,

I'm getting interested in sailing and have been doing quite a bit of reading with a particular interest in cruising.

Just wondering if there are any definitive web resources out there about particular areas of the world and their safety - be it due to changeable weather, coral shelfs, and whatnot. Not only looking for "dangerous" areas though - just any particular strangeties - for example areas where wind is a scarce resource like the doldrums, and so on.

For example, I'm reading a book at the moment that described the area within 30deg of the equator in the pacific as the "milk route" as it doesn't tend to have any dangerously changeable weather other than hurricanes which are generally seasonal.

Any ideas?

fergal.b

Not sure I can answer that maybe one of the sailors can I look at any stretch of water and know it can be deadly at certain times, knowledge of your surroundings may help but it's no guarantee :eek: The Bermuda triangle might be one place to stay away from but then again I'd say more people have gone missing in the Irish sea.




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HeidiHeidi

One thing that springs to mind is pilot or cruising guides. They give good local knowledge, from general stuff about the area they cover (I have two, one for the East/North coasts of Ireland, and for the Balearics), right down to tiny pilotage details for getting into basically every harbour you'll find.

What I don't know is how exetensively they cover the world - I'd assume that something along those lines is available for most of the world - it's certainly avialable for this side of it

ETA - this might be a good start - The Royal Cruising Club website http://www.rcc.org.uk/rccpf.aspx

<< The RCC Pilotage Foundation’s charitable object is “to advance the education of the public in the science and practice of navigation”. To this end the Foundation collects and researches written, photographic and chart information relating to small boat pilotage, navigation and operations, including remote areas where other sources of information are scarce or non-existent. The information is then disseminated through conventional books and, increasingly, via passage planning guides, downloads, e-books, and other media, accessible via the RCC Pilotage Foundation website at www.rccpf.org.uk>>

Tabnabs

http://www.cruisersforum.com is an American-centric, but widely used online forum and resource,

http://www.cruising.org.uk/home would be the big British organisation.

A lot of the information regarding navigation is hard won and expensive to keep up to date, therefore there's usually a price to pay to get this information easily to hand.

t1mm

Thanks a lot for the links guys!