Ocean Passages for the World

laika

laika

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Looking for opinions on world passage planning material. "Ocean Passages for the World" is obviously what they bang on about in YM Ocean theory class but I notice there was a new edition of Jimmy Cornell's "World Cruising Routes" out last year.

I'm not especially interested in high latitudes (or anywhere colder than Brighton or Gosport) but am interested in Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. Would rather have raw facts than one person's opinions, although facts+opinion+alternatives+trade-offs would be ideal.

Opinions on these or any similar publications? I could obviously spend all day browsing at the Kelvin Hughes stand at the boat show but would be interested in the thoughts of those who've used a variety of them. Cost and space considerations preclude the scattergun approach.
 
This is one of the best resources available:

http://www.noonsite.com/

Other than that I would recommend the Atlantic Pilot Atlas (James Clarke) or Cornell's Ocean Atlas (Jimmy Cornell) for more coverage. The other Cornell books are also very useful. A combination of research through books, dedicated websites and sailing forums will help to give you all the facts along with plenty of opinions and alternatives!

In my opinion, if sailing on an extended cruise around the world, it is well worth spending some of the time at higher latitudes. Tropical islands are lovely, but to really see the world you need to head to colder waters too!

Pete
 
After the two Cornell books, which are strictly must-have when world cruising, the RCC Pilotage Foundation books are the obvious next-down choice. See http://www.rccpf.org.uk/passage-planning. Volumes cover both passage planning for the oceans and guides to the major popular regions you might be considering visiting. (The latter are also best for planning, not always quite detailed enough for exploring specific localities, for which you might later consider local pilot guide books).

All these are expensive but often available second-hand from returning voyagers. Older editions are still perfectly useable for planning. I would start with Cornell's "World Cruising Routes" and the RCC Atlantic Crossing Guide; next Cornell's "World Cruising Destinations" (formerly "World Cruising Handbook"), which incidentally can be updated from Noonsite, http://www.noonsite.com.

If you still are interested in "Ocean Passages for the World", the 1973 edition is downloadable for free: http://www.sekstant.pl/docs/BA136.pdf. My guess is the RYA bang on about it because it's a bona-fide Admiralty publication, not from an organisation they might consider too 'commercial', and in some respects, a competitor.

P.S. Respect your wish to avoid the scatter-gun approach, but browsing some of the better blogs listed in the top thread of the Liveaboard Forum would fill in the winter evenings, and certainly whet your appetite for possible destinations.
 
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I think, for yachtsman, Jimmy Cornells World cruising routes is a better book than ocean passages of the world. +1 for noonsite. Loads of good information there. I am specifically interested in sailing Patagonia so I have spent a lot of time on google with some great blogs found. Takes time but there is lots of interesting stuff to be found.

Chris
 
If you are buying Ocean Passages for the World, be aware that an earlier edition contains the routes for sailing ships (which is what you need) and the more recent editions may not have it.
Cornell is very good , but I imagine his original sources were Ocean Passages and wind pilot charts.
 
blackdogsailing said:
I am specifically interested in sailing Patagonia so I have spent a lot of time on google with some great blogs found. Takes time but there is lots of interesting stuff to be found.

Chris
Click to expand...

You want to get this: Patagonia and Tierra Del Fuego Nautical Gde 2nd Ed

It is the bible.

As to the OP's question . . . . honestly once you have spent a little time cruising, and understand cyclone seasons and general global weather patterns it is all very straightforward. Until you gain that very basic knowledge, cornell's book is hard to beat.
 
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Hi Laika how are you, JC's WORLD CRUISING ROUTES is a dangerous book, it will give you itchy feet, big time. Worth getting for that reason alone!
By the way, I got the navtex box going, on a long wire but, as you said, the memory battery is such a tricky bit of soldering..all the best Jerry

edited to add, sounds like you got itchy feet already if you are asking. snap mate.
 
We've just done page 14 of cornells cruising routes of the world. It is now battered and spineless but did us fine for our 3 year circumnavigation. We also used Noonsite, and the appropriate pilot or cruising guide for each area.
 
Forget Ocean Passages for the World. Yes it has a bit on clipper ship routes but little relevant to the yachtsman. Jimmy Cornell's Routes is full of really meaty information on sailing from anywhere to anywhere.
 
oldvarnish said:
Cornell is very good , but I imagine his original sources were Ocean Passages and wind pilot charts.
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Nope - every description of his Ocean Atlas is at pains to point out that it's a completely original work, synthesised from 20 years of weather satellite data using a program specially developed by his computer scientist son. It contains some significant differences from the old pilot charts in places, explained either by climate change or by inaccuracy in the old manually-collected data especially in areas without much commercial traffic.

Subsequent editions of his other books seem to use the data from the Atlas.

Pete
 
prv said:
Nope - every description of his Ocean Atlas is at pains to point out that it's a completely original work, synthesised from 20 years of weather satellite data using a program specially developed by his computer scientist son. It contains some significant differences from the old pilot charts in places, explained either by climate change or by inaccuracy in the old manually-collected data especially in areas without much commercial traffic.

Subsequent editions of his other books seem to use the data from the Atlas.

Pete
Click to expand...

I happily stand corrected
 
prv said:
Nope - every description of his Ocean Atlas is at pains to point out that it's a completely original work, synthesised from 20 years of weather satellite data using a program specially developed by his computer scientist son. It contains some significant differences from the old pilot charts in places, explained either by climate change or by inaccuracy in the old manually-collected data especially in areas without much commercial traffic.

Subsequent editions of his other books seem to use the data from the Atlas.

Pete
Click to expand...

It looks very much a compilation of data available to anyone, see links below.
Hovering the pointer above the chart shows a very detailed wind rose on the side. Data can be downloaded in graphic or tabular form, a bit of number crunching and colours and there you have the "Atlas"

http://cioss.coas.oregonstate.edu/cogow/0101/66_top_right.html

root directory leads to the whole world. These are wind statistics over a period of 5 years derived from the now defunct QuikScat satellite scatterometer.

The one above is the easiest for an immediate result, there are several other sources where very long term statistical data about wind can be had, they all come from satellite scatterometry, several sources listed here:
http://www.knmi.nl/scatterometer/archived_prod/

this one from Eumetsat
http://www.eumetsat.int/website/home/Data/DataDelivery/EUMETSATDataCentre/index.html

regards


add.
IIRC, there is a routing project underway by the opencpn team, they use this type of data to calculate weather routing, it obviously gives some sort of "climatic" routing. A software doing a very similar thing is Visual Passage Planner
 
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Roberto said:
...
IIRC, there is a routing project underway by the opencpn team, they use this type of data to calculate weather routing, it obviously gives some sort of "climatic" routing. A software doing a very similar thing is Visual Passage Planner
Click to expand...

Take a look at the OCPN Climatology plugin, http://opencpn.org/ocpn/climatology_plugin, and the Routing plugin, http://opencpn.org/ocpn/weather_routing_plugin. Together these seem to do a better job than VPP and, with the polar calculator built in to the routing plugin, better than the routing add on I played with in MaxSea 10. The caveat here is that I've not used either plugin in anger yet (only discovered them this winter).

As others have said, use Cornell's Routes as the base publication for planning then use OCPN to try some what if's based on current GRIBs and climatology data. See you in the South Pacific (maybe :) :) )
 
Thanks for all the info and PMs. I shall consider it all but suspect I may be heading towards Jimmy Cornell's routes book and the suggested electronic resources. Much as I seem to spend most of my life in front of computers I do have a fondness for books.
 
World cruising Routes (Cornel} is a must have . I'm using the 3rd edition and it still holds true . I take the point regarding the odls 'sailing' routes and think it very true .Otherwise it has to be internet ; Noonsite, OCC, RCC site and peoples blogs . By the time they are printed books are out of date in many cases and very often inaccurate . I think especially of ' Brasil Cruising Guide-Balette' First published in English by Imray in 2010 . This was misleading and sometimes quite dangerous . Don't think because it has an attractive cover it is well researched ,
 
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