Cruising Guides for S E Alaska

[Larry H]

S E Alaska cruisers,

Can anyone recommend cruising guide books for SE Alaska?

My books are getting too old.

Thanks,

 

[Alyssa Jean]

The Douglas cruising books were of great help to us on our trip to Ketchikan. Their SE Alaska goes up as far as Sitka as I remember.

 

[thataway]

I would also recomment the Don Douglas-Reanee Hemmingway-Douglass guides.
http://www.addall.com/detail/0938665588.html

Charlie's charts--although Charlie has been dead for a number of years, his widow has attempted to keep these in date.

http://www.alaska.net/~awss/CruisingGuides.html mostly for small boats, kayaks and camping, but worth a look.

Canada and Alaska's Inland Passage Cruise Tour guide is a 6 foot strip map. We used it for general planning and kept it as a souviner after the three trips we made to Alaska. It gives you the "whole picture", plus some history.:
http://www.starpath.com/catalog/books/1855.htm

Although very dated--certainly worth a read for the history and contrast:
Letters from Alaska--a book by John Muir
http://www.amazon.com/Travels-Alaska-Jo ... 0871567830

There are also some sources of Captain Jame's Cook's voyages to Alaska as well as the voyages of Captain George Vancouver's Discovery to BC and Alaska. These all put the modern world in perspective--and it is very interesting to read about the change in the Glacier's well as the culture of the Indians.

Another useful book is Salmon Holes & Halibut Hills, A Sport Fishing Atlas of Southeast Alaska by the dept of fisheries.

We had a complete set of NOAA paper charts which we obtained from a friend who runs tugs up there--and updated yearly with NTM. We also had the Marine Atlas from Port Hardy to Skagway--by Morris. It is not actual charts, but might serve as paper back up, if the chart plotter went down. (177 charts and about 40 aerial photos).

Great cruising--I hope we see you up there...

 

[Larry H]

Thanks for the tips, I have the Charlie's Charts, but not the Douglas books.

I also have the Marine Atlas and paper charts.

Bob,

Are you going to SE this summer? We will be there June and July.

Larry H

 

[Casey]

We found the Douglass guides to be Excellent - rather pricey, but in my opinion they set the standard for detailed cruising information.

A couple of the (Douglass) guides are pretty thick, so may not be particularly handy to use. I took them to a Kinko's and had them spiral bound; much easier to use now. (If you do that, copy the table of contents and index pages beforehand so you'll have TOC and Index in each volume.)

Another idea: Take the Douglass' North and South Edition maps (not really a chart...), carefully trim each into three 11x17" maps, have them laminated for use onboard. The maps are very useful, and at 11x17" (about placemat size) are much easier to use in the confines of a C-Dory. If you're doing the entire Inside Passage you can even put both the North and South portion into three laminated maps if you use both sides.

Finally ... the "Southeast Alaska Inside Passage Recreation Guide" (ISBN: 0-938011-03-0 / Great Pacific Recreation Maps & Guides, POB 872, Bellevue, WA 98009-0872 / $6.95) is useful. In incorporates, into one source, a LOT of useful data, anchorages, points of interest, local maps, etc for all of SE AK. It's NOT a nav chart, but very handy.

Best,
Casey
C-Dory Naknek
Lake Montezuma, AZ