The Cruising Guide New Caledonia Book versus the Nautical Guide to New Caledonia

This page is going to take awhile to download because I want to show you some photos that help illustrate the difference between the old 1996 cruising guide book and what the 2012 cruising guide offers. So while the images are downloading let's first look at some statistics.

Cruising Guide to New Caledonia
The Program versus the Book

	Interactive Nautical Guide	Book
Latest revision (actual changes to anchorage information)	November 2011	1996
Number of Anchorages presented	212	138
Number of route maps between anchorages	60	0
Number of GPS routes	220	0
Index for instant look up of an anchorage or route map	Yes	No
Vertical survey quality, high resolution aerial and Satellite Images of anchorages in full color	209	0
Total number of photos	980 including virtual reality and 360° photos	54 (mostly Black and white)
Go from any anchorage or chart view to any other with two clicks	Yes	No
GPS locations are WGS84 compliant	Yes	No
High resolution photos of the anchorages from ground level	Yes	No
High resolution approach photos of anchorages	Yes	No
Tide program for New Caledonia and the world	Yes	No tide tables

 

The basic idea of a chart or a cruising guide is to help you know as much as possible about an anchorage and the passages to it before you actually head off to go there with your boat and loved ones. It's a question of security as well as pleasure and confidence when going somewhere you've never been before.

Let's take an actual example from an anchorage in the Isle of Pines - a group of islands south of Grande Terre and a favorite cruising area for visiting yachts. I've selected Ilot Brosse, also known as Ilot Alcmene for the comparison.

Here is what you see for Ilot Brosse on the official hydrographic map:

And here is what you see in the Cruising Guide to New Caledonia book:

On the lower left corner of the mud map drawing I have drawn in an X - this is where the book says the anchorage is located according to their GPS position. The location the book gives is actually on top of a very shallow coral reef and your yacht would be aground long before you reached this position.

The real anchorage is roughly where I have drawn a red circle and the entrance to the anchorage is where I have put a small red x. Now let's compare this mud map to what we have on the Nautical Guide to New Caledonia.

Here is what you see on our new Nautical Guide to New Caledonia.

This is a survey quality aerial photograph of the island. The above image is nowhere near the quality of the image you will see on the program. The image presented on this web page is only 700 pixels wide - the one on the program is 2048 pixels wide and you can see every coral head with amazing clarity. Compare this image with the ones above and you will immediately appreciate the advantages of seeing reality over a sketch.

You get a lot more information than that on the program. If you put your cursor over the little sailboat icon you get directions on approach to the island like this:

You have a GPS route number - and you can use this to open a GPS program that will upload the GPS coordinates directly to your Garmen or Magellan or Simpson Laurance GPS unit or you can save the route in a number of other formats for use by whatever program you now use to send GPS coordinates and routes to your GPS or plotter. These GPS points are spot on, verified many times by myself and other yachts who use our guide.

The sailing directions give you exact instructions for sailing to Ilot Brosse from Kuto anchorage in Isle of Pines.

Now that you know how to get there and how to enter the anchorage lagoons, put your cursor over the yellow anchor on the right to find out about the eastern most anchorage.

An image of that anchorage pops up instantly along with an ACCURATE GPS position, the type of bottom and related anchoring conditions, depth of the anchorage, protection from various winds, etc.

There are three anchorages offered for this island and this is the middle one - very protected and beautiful:

And this is the third anchorage, the most westerly one with GPS points, depths and anchoring conditions.

Is that it? No way. Click on the "i " icon and this is what you see:

Now you know that if you want to listen to the weather forecast on VHF the correct channel for this area is Channel 25, that the mobile phone works well here and that there is TV (also you can see the evening weather broadcast). Notice the menu bar with information on the beaches and the reefs. Put your cursor over the NW beach and you see this photo:

Here we have information about the tours from the local hotels to this island and their picnic facilities.

Now have a look at the NE beach - makes you dream about going there, right?

There's more photos of the beaches and the reefs but you get the idea. Our guide has this level of information instantly available for 151 anchorages all around New Caledonia, from the reefs to the north of New Caledonia to Isle of Pines and the Loyalty Islands.

Of course, you have to get to the anchorage in the first place.

In the book you have no anchorage index so it is a page flip job to try and find first the section on the Isle of Pines and then the anchorage itself.

On the guide you start with a satellite image of all of New Caledonia (actually you can be anywhere in New Caledonia on the guide and get to any anchorage anywhere in two clicks).

You point to the various areas of the islands to find out what's where. If you point to the Isle of Pines you see this:

Click on the Isle of Pines and you zoom in to see this:

This level gives the various routes to go to and from the Isle of Pines, you'll get exact distances and GPS points for each route so you can plan your cruise there and back.

There is also important information on wind directions and currents.

If you wanted now to look at the next satellite image to the west or north just click on the edge of the image and you'll jump to the next photo-chart in that direction. .

But for now, we'll click on the Isle of Pines to zoom in even closer for a detailed look at routes in and around Isle of Pines.

From here you can zoom in again to the image I showed you above on how to get to Ilot Brosse or you can click on the yellow anchorage at Ilot Brosse or any of the other anchorages on Isle of Pines to instantly zoom in and see them in full detail.

Ease of Access to highly accurate cruising and anchoring information

This gives you an idea of what's on the guide that you will not find in the outdated book or anywhere else and the ease of accessing that information.

The book has no information at all about how to get your boat from one anchorage to another, no suggested routes, and no easy way to find an anchorage you are interested in.

I didn't mention that in addition to the very user-friendly way of simply clicking on the photo-chart to zoom into an anchorage, you could also have clicked on the binocular icon to see a quick listing of every anchorage and route map in New Caledonia. So if someone says you should check out Ilot Brosse you would Just click on the binoculars, then on the name Brosse and pop - you are there seeing it from a bird's eye view in living color.

And that's just ONE of 151 anchorages on the Guide, many of the others have lots more photos and detailed information including virtual reality sphere images of New Caledonia's Lagoon like these.

It's your vacation, your boat, your friends and family, if you want the best information for your security and safety when cruising in New Caledonia throw out your outdated book and(or) pirated copies of the program we made from the book in 2002 and download or order the Nautical Guide to New Caledonia.

 

DOWNLOAD YOUR CRUISING GUIDES RIGHT NOW SAVE TIME AND MONEY If you want the guides without delay and without the postage and handling fees, and if you have a good fast Internet connection you can download your guides now and save time and money. After payment you will be transferred to a page with installation instructions and download links. At the same time you will also be sent a receipt for your purchase and a separate email with the links and more detailed installation and activation instructions. The links are only valid 48 hours so be ready to do the big downloads within 48 hours. You HAVE to use a download manager like www.freedownloadmanager.org to assure the download will be uncorrupted. Many people who do not use a download manager have problems and waste their time and mine with download issues. In the end they use a download manager program and have no problem. So do it right the first time, please, the download manager program does not cost anything and will greatly speed up the download for you. You'll be happy to have it in the future whenever you want to download a file from the Internet. Before you can use the cruising guide you will need to activate it on the computer you will use while cruising (it will only work on the computer you activate it on). If you use another computer to download the file (for example your office or home computer), transfer the downloaded files to your cruising computer via a USB key and then install and activate it. (The companion tourism guide does not need activation). For details on downloading and installing the guides click here. For details on activation of the cruising guide click here.
Download the Cruising Guide to New Caledonia - Windows Installation Program 563MB and the companion Activity and Travel Guide 724MB. AUD $155.00. The download links are valid for 48hrs.	Download
Download the 4 guides to Vanuatu and New Caledonia (245MB + 548MB +724MB + 563MB) for AUD $240.00 The download links are valid for 48hrs.	Download Vanuatu + New Caledonia

Order your cruising guides on DVD
Order a DVD with the Windows Installation Programs for the Nautical Rocket Guide to New Caledonia and the Tourism Rocket Guide to New Caledonia. This is an excellent gift for someone who plans on cruising, chartering, surfing, kayaking or diving in New Caledonia. AUD$165.00 includes shipping and handling anywhere in the world. Allow 3 to 4 weeks delivery depending on your address.	DVD Version
If you are also planning to cruise Vanuatu, we have a special offer for all 4 guides that includes the New Caledonia cruising and tourism guides plus the latest Nautical Rocket Guide to Vanuatu and it's companion Tourism Guide to Vanuatu. This option covers all the islands of Vanutu and New Caledonia, so you can plan your cruise in both these south Pacific destinations. AUD$260.00 includes shipping and handling anywhere in the world. Allow 3 to 4 weeks delivery depending on your address.	4 Vanuatu + New Caledonia Guides

 

Where to buy the Cruising Guide to New Caledonia

 

Expect a delivery time by priority air mail of three to six weeks depending on where you are ordering from. We post the guides the same day we get the order but the postal service has become unbelievably slow to deliver anything these days.

The Nautical Rocket Guides to both Vanuatu and New Caledonia are also available at the following locations:

Noumea Yacht Services in Noumea, New Caledonia,

Yachting World's Cyber Connect Cafe in Port Vila, Vanuatu

Kaleva Yachting Services in Port Vila, Vanuatu

Boat Books in New Zealand
Boat Books Limited 22 Westhaven Drive, Auckland City, New Zealand
Phone -64 9 358 5691; fax -64 9 358 5817 crew@boatbooks.co.nz

TransPacific in New Zealand 121 Beaumont Street, Westhaven, Auckland, New Zealand
Phone: +64 09 303 1459
Toll free: 0508 CHARTS (0508 242 787) or 0800 4 A CHART (0800 422 427)
Fax: +64 09 307 8170
Email: sales@transpacific.co.nz

Boat Books Australia Sydney Shop: 31 Albany St, Crows Nest       NSW 2065 AUSTRALIA       T: +61 2 9439 1133       F: +61 2 9439 8517

Boat Books Australia Victoria Shop:         214 St Kilda Rd, St Kilda         VIC 3182 AUSTRALIA         T: +61 3 9525 3444         F: +61 3 9525 3355

Boat Books Australia Queensland Shop:       109 Albert St, Brisbane       QLD 4000 AUSTRALIA       T: +61 7 3229 6427       F: +61 7 3221 9391

 

Activation

The guide needs to be activated on your computer - for details on activation click here