The 2008 cruising season may be drawing to a close - but the appearance of the Reeds Nautical Almanac 2009 immediately banished dark thoughts of the winter, and leads into planning next year's adventures.
The 'bible of Almanacs' provides all the information required to navigate around the UK, Ireland, the Channel Islands, and the European coastline from the tip of Denmark to Gibraltar - and the Azores.
All right, so most of us will never use more than a fraction of it in a season's sailing, but it's worth having, just for the up to date info about your home cruising waters and you summer holiday destinations - and the rest makes great armchair reading!
The publisher makes great efforts every year to improve the design and appearance of the Almanac and to make it easier for users to navigate to the information they need. The 2009 edition is no exception: there are said to be 45,000 changes, updates and improvements to its 1,056 pages.
The most notable change this year is that passage information is now threaded into the relevant places within the individual harbours, marinas and anchorages section, , simplifying reference to this vital planning tool. The tides chapter has also been moved next to the navigation chapter, again for greater convenience when passage planning.
For completeness, all the Collision Regulations are listed, most with explanations.
A new section has been added on AIS (Automatic Identification System)
Safety equipment recommendations have been updated in accordance with the latest MCA/RYA advice.
The first aid section has also been revised to reflect current training and practice.
Complete with 700 harbour chartlets, tide tables and tidal styream diagrams, 7,500 waypoints, distance tables, weather, lights and buoyage and much, much more, Reeds Nautical Almanac is good value at £34.99 - and can usually be bought for less thanks to boat show special offers etc.
It also comes complete with six months of free, downloadable supplements of navigational changes, from January to July. And it is shrink-wrapped with a free Reeds Marina Guide, containing detailed marina plans for the UK, Ireland and the Channel Islands, as well as a comprehensive directory of marine services and suppliers.
And this time it also comes with a free CD introduction to the new Reeds Online Almanac. With more and more yachtsmen taking a laptop afloat, the 2009 Almanac is available for the first time as a combined book and online pack. Or you can subscribe to the online almanac separately.
The online almanac has some open access pages, but most of the detailed information is available to subscribers only. The obvious benefit of the online almanac is that it is updated in real time, so unlike the print version, does not need manual correction!
Its features include:
- Rapid searchability
- Enhanced chart capability
- Dynamic weather forecasting
- Tidal predictions and animated tidal flow charts
- Comprehensive port and marina services guide
- Extensive searchable trade directory
The publishers say the online almanac is the perfect companion to the print edition. Presumably some navigators will choose one or the other. I can see the attractions of the
online Almanac, and will doubtless find it extremely useful, but I wouldn't want to go to sea without the trusted and treasured print version.
