Local knowledge

[BrianJ]

A few posts ago Ships_Cat showed us some interesting examples of Cook Strait in one of her “moods”
I then sent him a PM about sailing out of Wellington, headed across the Strait to Queen Charlotte Sound. I planned a route, put in several waypoints and said to John, “hey that’s the way I would get there, please check at your leisure.” True to form, John came back and said NO… there was a better way of clearing the harbour and sailing across the Strait. He then showed me how, on charts etc. Naturally he had a qualifier referring to local weather conditions at the time.
Well I was impressed. Just goes to show you how much you must seek local advice when cruising in unfamiliar waters.

I haven’t cruised the Indian Ocean yet, however have been in contact with “Tony” at www.cruisingconnections.co.za... Evidently he will supply you with all the local knowledge you require if headed around the bottom of SA…( open up his site and have a look )…
Just goes to demonstrate how close the International Cruising fleet are .(providing I don’t mention cricket, football etc)
BrianJ..... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Ships_Cat]

I am flattered Brian /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif.

I agree fully with the point regarding getting access to local knowledge and would be interested in peoples' views on the worth of printed cruising guides.

For our home waters of central New Zealand we have access to probably the most extensive cruising grounds in the country (being the Marlborough Sounds, D'Urville, Tasman Bay region with almost uncountable bays and nooks to anchor in) and a very detailed cruising guide for it. However, I find the cruising guide quite misleading for us (not in a dangerous way) as it seems to assume the least capable craft.

For example, it may state that an anchorage doesn't give a good nights sleep because of wind/waves, whereas I know from experience that might be so for a little 25 footer, but not so at all for a larger boat. The guide does not make any distinctions in that regard. Similar for anchor holding, seems to assume the least able anchoring system so I tend to assume that its recommendations are ultra conservative.

One does not normally have the opportunity of making such judgements of a cruising guide unless they have some long term familiarity with the waters it covers (ie normally ones home waters) - I would be interested in others views, along these lines, on the ways cruising guides are useful or not useful for their own home waters.

John