[PUP] West coast of Central America Cruising Guide?

[Peter Pisciotta]

>> "Cruising Ports:
>> Florida to California" and "MexWX,"
>> both of which are
>> out of print, and therefore out of date.

> PATRICK: 
> I believe that both of these books are being 
> revised at this time. 

I certainly hope so, but the last I talked to John
Rains a couple years ago as he was getting out of the
delivery business, I had the impression he wasn't
doing a lot of travel by boat, so I wouldn't be
surprised to learn there will be no update to that
cruising guide.

> PATRICK: 
> I met Margo Wood, "Charlie" Wood's wife, at the
> Seattle Boat Show last January. She is 
> continually publishing updates through cruisers
> who send her revisions.

This was the "gold standard" of cruising guides for
years. And I haven't read one in a number of years so
I won't speak specifically about Charlie's Charts. But
in general, cruising guides are interesting but not as
detailed and well-researched as they should be - a
careful eye will find many, many examples of language
pulled directly from the non-copyrighted Coast Pilots.
For example, until Don and Reanne Douglass wrote the
quitissential guide on the US Pacific Coast ($60!!!),
the only guide from San Francisco south was written by
the same person who wrote the only guide for the
Channel Islands off Santa Barbara. In some places the
info was good, in other places, it was clear he had
never visited the place. A park ranger at San Miguel
Island once joked "If I had a dime for every anchorage
that was identified as 'suicidal...'" A good cruising
guide requires the author to make purpose-specific
visits, not just recollections of a cruising voyage. 

But I agree with you Patrick - there's very little
more satisfying than sitting down with any
book/article and dreaming-the-dream. It's what I once
heard referred to as the "Huck Finn Syndrome," the
equivilent of floating down the Mississippi with a
straw hat pushed over your brow to shield the sun.

Peter