Heading to the Bahamas or the Caribbean for the winter and unsure of which pilots or cruising guides and charts to buy.  Welcome to the club!  These two areas are covered by many authors, government and private charts and the choice can be confusing.

While nearly everyone now uses a chart plotter of one type or another having a set of paper charts when cruising in these areas is beneficial.  With chart books in hand it is easy for another skipper who is over for drinks or for you to carry along when visiting another boat to point out good and bad anchorages or maybe sandbars that one way or another they have discovered have moved away from their charted position.  Also, while it is not a frequent occurrence chart plotters and GPS system can and do fail.  In light of some recent occurrences and revelations about the ease a hacker can block or manipulate a GPS signal having paper charts along as a back-up has become more critical than ever.

I also like having a paper chart in hand that is showing me a wider view of what I am looking at than what my chart plotter may be showing as I try to identify landmasses and anchorages that I am approaching.  Yes, I can expand the chart view on a plotter but then I lose detail that might be critical to transiting the immediate area.  I like staying out in front of my boat and developing situations as much as possible and having a paper chart to view in conjunction with a plotter can sometimes give you that edge.

When it comes to charts, forget the government published charts, regardless of which island group you are going to, no government has seen fit to do any surveys of the Bahamas or Caribbean for over 100 years.  They just haven’t had any incentive to do so.  In fact, if you purchase the US Gov’t chart of Eleuthera in the Bahamas the Western side of the island is still a big white blank cautioning mariners to be careful as the waters are uncharted when in fact private charting companies have done a nice job of accurately charting the area.

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When it comes to Pilots again there are a lot to choose from.  My favorite for the Bahamas are those written by Steve Pavlidis.  Steve has put in a lot of time with some pretty high-tech gear making great sketch charts of most harbors and anchorages throughout the Bahamas. His guides provide lots of history, descriptions of the flora and fauna and great information on services, groceries, laundries, and all the other shore side services cruisers need.

In the Caribbean both Steve Pavlidis and Chris Doyle have written guides that cover Puerto Rico to Grenada.  You can’t go wrong with any of their guides.

Click here on Charts and Pilots or Cruising Guides to go to our Recommendations page where you will find links to purchase our recommendations for Charts and Pilots from the authors and chart houses mentioned here.