Pilots/almanacs for North Sea circuit

[markbatey]

Hi,
I'm planning a summer tour of the North Sea, and looking for recommendations for guides to harbours, marinas, anchorages etc. The trip is from Northumberland, via Peterhead to Bergen, round the Norwegian coast and down to Copenhagen, then Kiel Canal, mast-up through the Dutch canals, and back to the English east coast and home. I'll have Navionics on tablet and phone, plus maybe charts on the Garmin chartplotter, but I think some books might be helpful as well. I've not used the Cruising Almanac, but it looks ok, not sure whether there's enough detail though. Otherwise it seems you have to get individual pilots for each country which gets a bit expensive. What do you think will be most helpful for me?

Cheers

Mark

 

[Momac]

I bought a several years old but as new in packaging Cruising Almanac off Amazon for a good price.
Most books are going to be out of date even if the current version
Example - possibly cheaper elsewhere on Amazon if you are prepared to search

 

[dunedin]

The latest edition of the Cruising Association Almanac is a good call for a trip of that nature (as would be joining the CA for their CaptainsMate app).

For the Scandinavian stuff we found the online version of the Harbour Guides essential (careful to get the right one, as two differnt things with almost the same name) Harbour Guide | Harbour Guide

Finally, the new Explore With Imray option could be a good way to get multiple Imray pilot books for a single annual licence - though this is currently online only, so worth having the CA paper book as fallback Explore with Imray

 

[johnalison]

A lot of good advice, but it is possible to overthink this. Providing you have charts and harbour charts sufficient to get around safely, you don’t need detail for everything before you set out. I don’t know the UK/Norway bit, but there are free harbour guides for much of the Baltic in magazine format which are useful. When we were first there, pre internet, we got by with such guides and a lot of advice from local sailors, without which we would have missed many of the best spots.

 

[Momac]

Or a bit older

 

[markbatey]

Thanks very much, looks like the CA almanac for starters, and I'll check out the online options as well which I didn't know about. And as you say, make it up as you go along, all part of the fun really! Nice to have something to think about in this cold weather!

M

 

[Kukri]

I’d recommend joining the CA, buying the Almanac (which comes with a good set of tide tables in the Admiralty format) and going one step further and booking into CA House and spending a couple of days in the Cruise Planning section of the library.

 

[markbatey]

I’d recommend joining the CA, buying the Almanac (which comes with a good set of tide tables in the Admiralty format) and going one step further and booking into CA House and spending a couple of days in the Cruise Planning section of the library.

I really don't know anything about the CA, sounds interesting though, I'll check it out, thanks.

 

[Kukri]

I really don't know anything about the CA, sounds interesting though, I'll check it out, thanks.

I do think that, for the trip you are planning, it’s worth joining and making the fullest possible use of your membership.

 

[BabaYaga]

plus maybe charts on the Garmin chartplotter, but I think some books might be helpful as well.

As already mentioned, the Harbour guides are good and the online version might be an option for these waters. For a book covering a larger area, something like this could be another possibility:
Havneboka Skagerrak Maritim Båtutstyr
Deals with the coastline from the southern tip of Norway to Gothenburg, plus a few harbors on northern Jutland. An assortment of both built harbours and natural harbours/anchorages in one volume. In Norwegian, but the emphasis is on sketches an aerial photos anyway.
You can find a sample from the book here:
Havneboka Skagerrak

 

[dunedin]

I really don't know anything about the CA, sounds interesting though, I'll check it out, thanks.

If you do decide to join the Cruising Association, an existing member can give you a referral to save 25% of first year membership fee.
A number of us on here could do this - me, I suspect Kukri, and others. A PM is the best route.