Cruising Guide Booklets

 

Cruising Guide Booklets

CA Cruising Guide booklets help people choose which areas to cruise in, then gain maximum enjoyment from their visit. Mediterranean booklets are being replaced by more detailed material, published as web pages. These web guides will later be extended to cover other waters around Europe. 

Obtaining Booklets 

Non-Members. Most Cruising Guide booklets are for members only. However, four printed booklets (in addition to our excellent Almanac) are available to the general public through 'shop' (see menu, top of page): Inland France & Belgium; Harbours of the Baltic States; Cruising in Poland; Cruising in Greece. In addition, we have a CD, Cruising in E Germany.  Non-members pay a premium over the member's price. So -  become a member to download free of charge! You'll soon cover your membership fees. 

Members.  Free downloads are available from pages reached through the left menu (Baltic booklets are listed on their cruising guide pages). Each page has a link to a rather large (2MB to 3MB) PDF File (Adobe .pdf). These files, fine for broadband connections, are slow for older connections. The downloaded file can be saved or printed. To take material aboard:

  • Print selected pages from these files
  • Make a CD to take cruising, or -
  • Print a Booklet through your local print shop. Take your print file on CD and get a quote. 
  • Buy a Printed booklet in full colour from the office. We're sorry about the price, but producing these booklets in small runs is labour intensive, so they cost from £10  to £15 each for members (see the 'shop' menu tab at the top of the page). 

The Contents . . .

'Introduction to Cruising in . . .' and 'Cruising in . . .'  address the following questions:

  • Is the area worth visiting? The attractions and challenges of each area are described and compared with other regions. Weather, length of season, sea states, tidal effects, population density, even cost of living may be touched on.
  • How do I get there? Different routing options are covered.
  • What paperwork is needed? Official entry, passage and exit procedures usually involve paperwork, for the crew as well as the boat.
  • What boat preparation should I consider? For climate differences, different mooring or anchoring procedures, navigation and pilotage, whatever.
  • What support is available? Facilities for mooring, repair and maintenance, wintering, crew changes, travel, money, provisions, communications, Honorary local representatives (HLR), health - you mention it.
  • What's different? If it's markedly different, it should be here. Our aim is to minimise your surprises!

When cruising, we expect skippers to rely on commercially available pilot books. However, some sea areas have few English language pilot books (the Baltic . . . ) and little recent information about harbour facilities. So, in addition to answering the questions above, 'Harbour Guides to . . .'  are designed to fill these gaps.

 

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