Resources 📚 and products 🔧 we think are invaluable for boat life.
This page contains affiliate links 🛒 . If you make a purchase from these links, we get a few pennies to help us run our website. This is not, however, the reason why we recommend these products—these are actual things that we use on our boat every day that we think are good enough to recommend to others. Thanks!
Nigel Calder’s Boatowner’s Mechanical and Electrical Handbook
I’m generally a fan of Kindle books, but these first two books are worth having hardback copies on your shelf. For the amount of information I’ve learned from Calder and Casey over the years, they’re probably two of my most valuable possessions. Seriously, they are bibles of boat life regarding repairs and maintenance.
Calder’s Mechanical and Electrical Handbook covers all systems of the typical liveaboard boat, but it is especially useful for its in-depth detail on electrical systems and standard practices. It is updated frequently and includes many great things about solar, lithium batteries, general wiring, and system best practices.
Don Casey’s Complete Illustrated Sailboat Maintenance Manual
While the name implies it’s only for sailboats, this reference is invaluable to any owner of an older boat. This hardback includes six separate titles:
1. Inspecting the Aging Sailboat — Great for before you buy a boat, what to look for and how to do your pre-purchase survey.
2. Sailboat Hull and Deck Repair — Any type of fiberglass repair, from minor cosmetics to major projects, is covered.
3. Sailboat Refinishing — Keeping your boat pretty, how to restore wood, and how to maintain or repair gelcoat.
4. Sailboat Electrics Simplified — A great introduction to the basics of your electric system. It is less detailed than Calder’s book but much easier to understand for beginners.
5. Troubleshooting Marine Diesels — Maintaining and problem-solving a marine diesel engine. Excellent troubleshooting flow charts!
6. Canvaswork and Sail Repair — How-tos and simple project ideas to get you started in canvas making. There are instructions for simple bags, wind scoops, cockpit shades, and cushions
Beth Leonard’s The Voyager’s Handbook
For the dreamers, this book presents what you need to do to sail away. Unfortunately, a new edition is overdue, but many of the points made in this book about budgeting for cruising, finding, and boat, and outfitting it remain prescient for those in the planning stages and dreaming of world voyaging.
AquaMaps App
AquaMaps is our app of choice for the US East Coast and the Bahamas. Why? Here are a few things you can’t get from any other app:
- The Master subscription allows you to view the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACOE) survey data right on the chart. Surveys are taken along ICW and inlet troublespots, so you’ll see the most accurate, most reliable source of info about shoaling.
- Bahamas Explorer charts are available in raster and electronic formats. They are still the best charts for the Bahamas.
- Easy access to Bob423’s tracks for the ICW. Bob is the ICW guru, and having his latest track, especially through troublespots, is very comforting.
- It’s the easiest app to use that we’ve tried. Our chartplotter (B&G) makes it nearly impossible to create a detailed route, but AquaMaps on the iPad is easy and almost foolproof.
- Waterway Guide and Active Captain on your chart, updated often. Marinas, anchorages, free docks, bridges, and hazards from both sources. Waterway Guide has the best, most complete, curated, and correct information on marinas, bridges, and hazards. Both have crowd-sourced information about anchorages that we find is hit or miss.
- Weather bouy reports and forecasts for wind, waves, and currents, including NOAA area marine forecasts.
- Best anchor alarm we’ve tried
No other app has all of this in one easy-to-use package.
Explorer Chartbooks for The Bahamas
Lewis Offshore’s Explorer Chartbooks are still the must-have cruising guide for The Bahamas. Each book included detailed charts for each area, from small to large scale, and a list of need-to-know items for each town and settlement (i.e., where to eat, where to get propane, where to put your trash, where to get gas or diesel, etc.). There are also many informative articles throughout, like how to plan a Gulfstream crossing or information on Bahamas fishing regulations.
You can get the digital charts on AquaMap, but they are not a substitute for physical charts for two reasons. First, the digital versions never include all the notes and detailed information that make these books a true cruising guide. Second, these are the only paper charts we have regularly pulled out, studied, and discussed over cocktails. They are beautiful charts that are well worth having in your chart table.
These can be hard to find in a store, so order the complete set before you cross.
Steve Dodge’s Cruising Guide to Abaco
2024 Edition: 🛒 Buy on Amazon
If you’re just heading to the Abacos, Dodge’s guide is the most complete and up-to-date paper book available. It has many great features that other guides don’t, like a dedicated section on deep-draft route planning and hot fishing or snorkeling sites.
