Bound chart kits or chart books are the solution. Purchasing all of these paper charts can get expensive if you buy them individually.

And you need charts of the Bahamas, Turks & Caicos, and all of the Virgin Islands. Coastal charts north to Boston and south to Miami. For boats departing from the Chesapeake, you need to have U.S. Be certain that plans do change and you may need to make safe landfalls off your intended route all along the way. The Plan B charts are for your likely bail out options should you need to change your plans and your route for any reason. The Plan A charts are your ocean routing charts and the detailed charts for the Caribbean islands that you will be visiting plus those you might visit. On a paper chart you can highlight any dangers out there in a bright color, lay on the Gulf Stream coordinates and the waypoint where you want to cross it, and even make notes in pencil about currents and weather. But most of us today rely on GPS almost exclusively.Įven though you will mostly be using digital charts on your voyage, either in a dedicated chartplotter or a laptop with navigation software loaded, you really need to think of the chartplotter as a convenience and your paper charts as your primary navigation tools.įor offshore work, we find it easier to lay courses on a large ocean routing chart than on the small screen of the chartplotter or laptop. There are still some intrepid navigators who carry a sextant as a backup and they should be applauded for their thorough preparation and for having bothered to learn how to take sights, calculate a solution and then plot it accurately on a chart while maintaining a running DR fix.

While most of us use modern chartpotters with digital charts and have handheld GPSs as backup, it is still vital for every skipper and navigator to carry paper charts and supporting references, and to be able to navigate across a large body of water without the chartplotter. Bermuda Harbour Radio estimates that as many as 1,100 boats make the passage south each year, and all of them need charts, pilots, light lists and cruising guides. Here are the charts and guides you need to safely navigate and cruise the Caribbean (published January 2014)Įvery fall hundreds of boats depart the East Coast for the Caribbean.

Jeppesen plotting charts