CHARTS FOR MAINE...NH.....BOSTON....CAPE COD AREA

[Steadfast]

Hello...new owner 25 SC

Was told not to just rely on GPS but to also have charts. Came across:: Waterway Guide Northern 2016

Updated annually, Waterway Guide’s 2016 Northern edition is the indispensable cruising guide for boaters exploring the Atlantic coast from Cape May through Maine, as well as the Hudson River, Long Island Sound and Cape Cod Bay. The guide features over 500 pages of mile-by-mile navigation information, aerial photography with marked routes, marina listings and locator charts, anchorage information, and expanded “Goin’ Ashore” articles on ports along the way. Helpful cruising data like GPS waypoints, detailed planning maps, and distance charts help get cruisers there safely. Flexible spiral binding and heavy laminated covers with bookmarker flaps ensure durability and easy use in the cockpit and at the helm.

I think the price is about $43.00....Do you think this is all I would need???

Thank you

 

[BradOwens]

Congratulations on the new boat! I recommend getting a couple of detailed paper charts for your most often cruised areas. In the event of a GPS failure, the detailed charts make navigation much safer.

Brad Owens

 

[knotflying]

I have paper charts for most of the areas I cruise. Never really use them. For redundancy I have Garmin Blue Charts on my Ipad, which is independent of the other navigation devices. I would use my backup electronic charts before I would use paper.

 

[Red Raven]

We always keep one of those spiral bound chart books covering the area we cruise on board for extra back up just in case. We also have Garmin Bluechart with Active Captain on the iPad in case the main chart plotter fails and this would be our first choice before paper. The various guidebooks also provide helpful information on harbor entrances and things to watch for as well.

Curt

 

[JeffE]

The Waterway Guides have lots of invaluable information about harbors, marinas, parks and the like. More limited info regarding hazards and straits. The only chartlets are related to the harbors/marinas & other resources directly described in the book, as I recall.

You'll need charts of some sort. The Garmin electronic charts are one choice, but you'll want a backup so you're still in business if your chart plotter dies. You could consider an iPad running something like Navionics. Maptech chart books are a great inexpensive solution...but they stop south of Boston, with no Maine coverage at all. It'll take a lot of NOAA paper charts to cover the area in detail.

Have fun!

Jeff

 

[Crewdog]

FWIW, NOAA still provides electronic charts in PDF form that we download to an iPad just before a trip as an additional backup:

http://www.charts.noaa.gov/PDFs/PDFs.shtml

 

[CAPTCRUNCH]

One nice feature of the NOAA PDF charts is that they are updated each week.