Author: Seth
Picture: They say a journey starts with a single step. Our first step was buying Jimmy Cornell's book on cruising routes shown above. Read below for a complete reading list...
Today I received the nicest email from a fellow sailor named Hamish. With his permission I have posted his email below and answered his question regarding the best cruising books for the Caribbean and South Pacific, which I have included for those that might also be interested. We wish Hamish and his wife Sally the best of luck for a safe a fantastic journey! We're thankful for his email and blog - we'll be watching every step! Enjoy:
From: Hamish
Sent: Wed, March 10, 2010 8:22:05 AM
Subject: RE: Trip
Hi Seth,
I have been meaning to write for ages, but every time I think of a question, I recall that I have read the answer somewhere in your blog. Katherine introduced us to your blog around August last year and it has been wonderful following your adventures but we do hold you 100% responsible for what we are about to do.
My wife, Sally, ... sent me the link to your blog with the comment "have a look at this, it is amazing, I would do it in a heartbeat." After having a read myself, I said 'Ok then, lets do it' and the rest shall we say is history!
... We will probably follow a very similar route to yours from Panama, but we have to get across the Atlantic first! As I said, your blog has been great and most questions have been covered. I do hope you don't mind me asking a few more and probably even bouncing some ideas off you as we get further into our planning... [Can you recommend any pilot/cruising/passage books for the Pacific and the Caribbean?]
As you will appreciate we have a lot to do, but we have given ourselves a little more time than you guys! Congratulations on a successful trip and hope to chat further in the future.
Kind regards
Hamish
ps. We have taken your advice and started a blog. You may note that the layout is quite similar, sorry for that, but why reinvent the wheel!
HAMISH, HERE ARE THE BOOKS WE RECOMMEND!
General HOW TOs:
The Most Important Book: Jimmy Cornell on Route Planning
Best book on boat repairs, maintenance by Nigel Calder
Great general book on Cruising by Beth Leonard
Caribbean Cruising Guides
Bruce Van Sant on Cruising Routes and Life in the Caribbean
Cruising Guide to the Leeward Islands
Cruising Guide to the Windward Islands
Cruising the British Virgin Islands
Panama Cruising Guide:
The one and only Panama Guide
South Pacific Cruising Guides (or lack there of)
The best South Pacific Guide (anchorages only)
South Pacific tourism info, restaurants, hikes, etc
Australia Cruising Guides
Cruising the Coral Coast (avail in Aus)
Beacon Guide to the Queensland Coast (Avail in Aus)
Cruising New South Wales (Avail in Aus)
MISC Cruising Books / Favorite Reads
Excellent & Small Reef Fish Identification book
My favorite book of the Journey, The River of Doubt!
A great South Pacific Novel, and another one from the same author
Complete Wastes of Money
Complete waste of money, do not buy this book
Although a great concept, this book was out dated, do not buy
Sailors, anything I missed? Please comment!
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Comments [4]
Part 3 of our battle with a Yellow Fin Tuna
Part 4 of our battle with a Yellow Fin Tuna
Video: by Tim Williams
As we approached the final 30 minutes of our three week voyage across the pacific, we hooked a massive yellow fin tuna. Although desperate to get in the harbor and anchor, we stayed off-shore for almost an hour fighting this fish. We had no idea what it was and if it was even worth keeping, but when it finally broke the surface we knew we had to have it. And the wait was worth it, as we promptly cut the tuna into a full sushi platter upon arrival. Land could wait, for now...
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Author: Seth
Picture: We've learned the secret to a good blog post is a good picture! Here we see "the dream" perfectly captured. Everybody's happy off St. Barts.
I hate to say this, but now that I am back in SF I have realized there are a lot of bad sailing blogs out there. Come on sailors, us working folk need some good reading material to help pass the days! Sadly, this is especially true of some good friends of ours still out there (Marc on Imagine, this blog is directed at you)! :)
TOP 10 BLOGGING TIPS:
10) Don't have kids. In Marc's defense, this was his excuse for having such a pitiful blog. He said he "couldn't wait to see what our blog would look like once we had kids. Especially three of them." Point taken.
9) Use Sailblogs.com. Although it costs a little money, we would gladly pay the annual $110 fee to use Sailblogs again. We found the site easy to use (even with slow internet speeds) and easy to integrate with youtube, SPOT and photo sharing sites. And the Google Earth map is amazing. Nothing will make your blog better than Sailblogs.com.
8) Take Good Pictures. Let's face it, most of you don't read all the text (I'm not talking about you Mom). What most of you like is the pictures. In fact, I bet you are not even reading this.
7) Well, since you are not reading I can skip number 7 because I didn't really have 10 tips anyway.
6) Canon Cameras: When it comes to cameras, I believe that Canon makes some of the best out there. We used a Canon Digital Rebel XT for our important shots and a small Canon Powershot 870IS for daily pictures and video. We did not have a dedicated video camera and I would actually recommend against bringing one. You'll find you don't have it with you when you need it, and when you do it's too heavy and obtrusive to carry. Although I like the new Canon Powershot SX200, I also have my eye on a new Panasonic ZS3 that takes HD video and 12x optical zoom. But a camera is important - put it in your pocket and take HD video!
5) Underwater Housing: If you want to create a good sailing blog, then a good underwater housing for your camera is also important. It obviously helps with taking pictures underwater (which is great when you are swimming with sharks, sting rays and whales!), but it also helps protect your camera, making it truly splash-proof and it even floats! This is one investment that's better than any insurance you could buy at the camera store.
4) Wifi Antenna: You'll need the internet to post your blogs, so be sure to get a good wifi antenna booster. Although most city anchorages have wifi these days, the wifi booster extended the range and power of the signal. We would have been desperate without one and we liked the ALFA 802.11 b/g card the best. Easy, cheap and no installation required (and it worked with our Mac).
3) Buy a Mac: Your computer is important on a boat, which is why we bucked the general boating convention and opted for a Apple Macbook Pro instead. What it lacked in navigation software (MacEnc wasn't bad), it more than made up for in photo management and video editing software (which came included!). It also became our TV and DVD player as more and more boaters are trading in the traditional TV for computers with video files instead of DVDs.
2) SPOT Messenger: My Dad bought us our SPOT messenger which was good because we probably would not have had one otherwise. It's a great safety device (almost a small EPIRB) and it updated our exact location 24 hours a day to our blog with little effort on our part required. If you have a sailing blog, I would call this a must have device.
1) Add Video: We had so many people write us about our videos. Without visiting us, these readers got a feeling of what we were like and what living on a boat was like. Personality is hard to capture in writing but video makes it all so real. And the best part is that you will have the videos to keep forever. It was worth the effort and certainly made our blog more popular with readers.
So while I am hardly an expert and there are better blogs out there than ours, we did get over 1,200 unique readers per week and over 155,000 page views! So if we can do this, you could easily do better! So get out there and start blogging!
Lastly, for our disappointed readers, here are the Top 10 Sailing Blogs that I would recommend to keep you busy:
0) A new addition: Field Trip, a boat we helped inspire with a killer blog!
1) Tristan and Mindy from LA, dodging hurricanes in the South Pac.
2) Roger heading to Indonesia on his Catalina Morgan 44.
3) Team Zen have my dream boat and a great blog too!
4) Follow our Friends on Follow You, Follow Me.
5) Pegasus going around with children on their Atlantic Cat.
6) Stray Kitty also Circ'ing with kiddies on their PDQ 44.
7) Bumfuzzle: although done with their trip, still a great read.
8) You can't forget Jessica Watson and Abby Sudderland's youngest around attempt.
9) Check out Pegasus, just leaving the UK!
10) And I can't forget Imagine, all joking aside we love these guys.
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