Caribbean Cruising Info

[bigpoppop]

Good morning- we are just getting ready to transit the Panama Canal from pacific side- can anyone recommend some good cruising guides for the Caribbean waters? We will be ending up in Maine and need some guidebooks to help us out.

Many thanks

Jeff
Nordhavn 55

 

[Sealife]

Eastern or Western side?

 

[bigpoppop]

We will be exiting the canal at colon and working our way to Florida. Thinking of heading east to Trinidad and then north up the island chain to PR and Turks and cacis and Bahamas- or avoiding the big trip east to Trinidad and just heading up to Jamaica and cayman and Cuba.

Welcome anyone's ideas.

 

[Larry M]

We did the Colombia, ABC's to Trinidad and up the Eastern Caribbean chain route in 2012. it's a bit of a slog to weather to say the least. Most boats were heading west.

There isn't much for cruising guides for Colombia or the ABC's. We used Lonely Planets, free cruising guides and the internet. I posted here about our trip.

ABC Islands | Free Cruising Guides

http://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/s36/colombia-aruba-6439.html

http://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/s36/bonaire-trinidad-6862.html

 

[BandB]

A few here:

We make cruising the Caribbean possible! | Free Cruising Guides

Not free, but decent:

Cruising Guides

And these:

Doyleguides hompage

Then we found a lot of interesting books on Amazon and Google. You'll find them focused mostly on narrower locations so more detail and more about the experience. Many are sailing focused but still help with the experience. Then google for blogs.

Are you anticipating the Western or Eastern Caribbean or both? On the Western side, we really enjoyed Panama, especially Bocas del Toro. We liked Belize and the Mexican coast. We also made side trips to the Caymans and Jamaica. Eastern Caribbean we left until later and have cruised it since then.

 

[Sealife]

The Colombian government has an excellent cruising guide that also covers San Andres & Providencia. Depending on your route, if we cross paths, I can show you all of our guides for the entire basin. You can than decide for yourself.