Best south coast guide

S

Simon 420

Well-Known Member
Joined
13 Jan 2020
Messages
103
Location
Bedford
Visit site
Thinking ahead to my christmas present, and with a view to planning an extended 3-4 month trip from east coast to Land End/Scillies and back in 2 years time, can you recommend a good guide to cover the whole of the south coast please - harbours, marinas, anchorages, tidal tips and places to visit en route
 
I have only ever bothered with Reeds, since I will want it on board anyway. It is more than enough for planning such as Portland Bill and for the harbours. There should be enough in it, combined with charts, for more exploration as well. I have never seen the point of paying a lot for an expensive illustrated book that will be out of date next year and the only additional information is where the best pubs are. There are some perfectly serviceable pilot books, but I no longer bother with them. The old ones were much more modest and affordable.
 
I suggest you find a specialist nautical bookshop and look at several different pilot books then select ones that you like.

The amazing Sea Chest is local to me in Plymouth, their service is outstanding and they are more than happy for customers to browse their shelves before making a purchase. Personally, I use the Imray West Country (supplemented with my own notes) and a copy of Reeds, replaced every seven years. I find The Shell Channel Pilot lacks any useful information.
 
Simon 420 said:
Thinking ahead to my christmas present, and with a view to planning an extended 3-4 month trip from east coast to Land End/Scillies and back in 2 years time, can you recommend a good guide to cover the whole of the south coast please - harbours, marinas, anchorages, tidal tips and places to visit en route
Click to expand...

I think Cunliffe might be the only one to take in the larger area but I have always had this for the West Country (c Portland/Exe to Scilly):

West Country Cruising Companion - Mark Fishwick (bookharbour.com)

It's very good but the price looks hefty now, for planning/dreaming I would get an old edition of both. Look at Abebooks etc, you will probably get late editions of both delivered for under 20 quid.

.
 
doug748 said:
I think Cunliffe might be the only one to take in the larger area but I have always had this for the West Country (c Portland/Exe to Scilly):

West Country Cruising Companion - Mark Fishwick (bookharbour.com)
Click to expand...

+1 for Fishwick, supplemented by Cunliffe for the larger harbours and marinas. We spent eight weeks cruising the West Country and the Isles of Scilly this summer and these books plus some Admiralty Charts for the area were all we needed for suggestions of where to explore plus giving us the ability to adventure to anchorages beyond those recommended in the books when weather and tide allowed.
 
I was down by boat in West Country for first time and worried about venturing beyond Portland bill also invested in the West Country cruising and found it helpful . I also have shell pilot and also bought a book on Devon bays which was quite handy and showing some good beaches to anchor off.
 
Reeds evey time-- plus the Shell Channel Pilot by Tom Cunliffe - Imray. I disagree with negative comments above. I always have both board when going south.
Covers the whole of the Channel, so one can nip over to the other side if we make it up with our " friends & allies" in time for a quick booze cruise to Cherbourg on the way west.
(I never rely on "smart phones" for navigation. In fact one of the joys of sailing is to turn the darned thing off.)
As an aside, It is also a bit cheaper travelling east/west south side of the Channel & the CIs are great. Especially if one has family to entertain. Then from St Peter Port, head for Falmouth to have ones wallet fleeced.
 
Last edited:
doug748 said:
I think Cunliffe might be the only one to take in the larger area but I have always had this for the West Country (c Portland/Exe to Scilly):

West Country Cruising Companion - Mark Fishwick (bookharbour.com)

It's very good but the price looks hefty now, for planning/dreaming I would get an old edition of both. Look at Abebooks etc, you will probably get late editions of both delivered for under 20 quid.

.
Click to expand...
I've got this year's Fishwick for sale. Very good but won't be back in West Country for a few years. Probably not a Xmas present as I made a little scrape on the spine.
 
LadyInBed said:
You wouldn't need a mobile phone signal if when doing your preparation for a passage you saved the pages/took screen shots on your pc/tablet/phone.
Click to expand...
I have yet to witness any skipper, an eSkipper, who is reliant on electronic navigation aids doing this.

Makes changing your destination mid crossing 'interesting' as the eSkipper waits for a signal in thick fog. You will know how I know ;)

An interesting aside, I discovered that planning on electronic devices took just as long as on paper. However, prising the electronic device out of the sleeping eSkippers frozen hand took a bit of effort. When awake the eSkipper is constantly looking at their electronic device, but this activity is common amongst most people. The paper passage plan and charts were on the nav table for all to use and not referred to as much as people had looked at the chart and knew that Start Point was roughly south west.

Finally, my ancient chartplotter decided to time travel back to 2002 o_O halfway between Peterhead and Lowestoft last August. Which made its tide calculations totally meaningless! After a quick chat to the very nice people on the Garmin stand at the Southampton Boat Show, a software upgrade and a stern talking to, it has safely arrived back in 2021 ? checking for updates is now part of my pre-season checklist.
 
I don't really understand the comments regarding "e" solutions needing an internet signal - we have navionics (which includes tides/streams) and a full UK set of charts downloaded on board - no internet required.

But, yes, I still have a written passage plan with the essential info - much quicker to grab when needed.

I do have a thing about having tide info up to date in printed form however.
 
Sandy said:
But rubbish when crossing Lyme Bay with no mobile phone signal.
Click to expand...
Just FYI, if you are a member/subscriber to visit my harbour you can now down load Harbour guides as PDF to keep or print off/laminate.

If I recall it was like £25 for a lifetime subscription which seemed rather good value considering the other stuff you get as well

TC
 
Much as we all hate to promote the mainstream surely the shell channel pilot (post #3) and Reeds (Post #4) are the baseline for the OP's answer with additional "better" answers for different areas are supplements?

Given that I spent my first few months of boat ownership living aboard at QAB and consider it something of a "boating spiritual home" I can attest to sandy's post #3 statement about just what a perfect, though compact, nautical emporium the sea chest is but the OP may need a couple of books before getting there :-) (although obviously they do mail order...)
 
Thankyou all for your recommendations. I do have visit my Harbour which is an excellent resource but not too easy to snuggle down with when, in the words of Nick Burnham , I'm tucked away with a good book.
 
Simon 420 said:
Thankyou all for your recommendations. I do have visit my Harbour which is an excellent resource but not too easy to snuggle down with when, in the words of Nick Burnham , I'm tucked away with a good book.
Click to expand...


Good show.

For me a good pilot book should be readable from cover to cover and tell you what is interesting about each place, sprinkled with a few tips and hints about overall passage planning and places not to miss. It should leave you excited about your visit and keen to get on. As you suggest, it's not an Almanac or substitute for charts.

I think Fishwick hits the mark, the Shell book is fine but covers so much ground it does not really meet the readability criteria but worth having.
Going off piste here but the latest edition of this is an excellent example and great Christmas reading, might perhaps set you up for following trips? Click on the link on the Imray page to view inside pages:

Books


PS,

Forgot to add, if you are interested in anchoring there is still nothing to beat this:

1635768062382.png
Printed 40 years ago, you still find the odd copy being offered. Not an inspirational reading book (and obviously missing the odd new development ;-) but lists over 120 passage anchorages with chartlets.

.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Other threads that may be of interest

T
Notices to Mariners - Week 51
Replies
4
Views
643
Shaz77
S

Share this page

Top