Hi Max,

...but not before heading down the East coast this fall, and spending the winter in the Bahamas and Caribbean... Wolf says it will be "easy" to still make it up there, just a quick trip back from Antigua to Bermuda, then to Lunenberg, and they're on their way... They are a couple of cruisers who keep on the move, and love to sail, no doubt about it...

They only did NFLD and Nova Scotia this summer, Wolf had a back problem last spring that kept him in out of commission until it was too late to head for Greenland from Lewisporte, where they had left the boat for the winter. Interesting to hear his take on what 'world cruising' has become today, he likens most folks nowadays doing Milk Run circumnavigations to lemmings following the herd, rarely deviating from what is becoming a well-worn path, and hoping to find marinas everywhere they go (grin)... BTW, Max, you should read Alvah Simon's piece "Back in the Day" in the current 40th Anniversary Issue of CRUISING WORLD. It's excellent, and you in particular would appreciate his reflections on the changes in cruising since he first started 4 decades ago...

"Trading paper charts has been replaced by trading DVDs..."

As you probably know, Wolf and Doris are on a pretty tight budget... Hanging on a mooring for a week at the Shelburne YC @ $16/night is about as much extravagance as they will indulge in. But they have no hesitation spending $ on what they feel is important, so my decision to bite the bullet and spend a hefty chunk of change for all the paper charts for Labrador seemed vindicated after hearing they had done the same... After some time spent evaluating his electronic chart coverage for that coast, Wolf reluctantly came to the conclusion that Labrador and Greenland are definitely not the sort of place you'd want to be without paper, as well...

All in all, I was very impressed with the accuracy of the charts up there, far better than I was expecting... However, my paper charts did prove to be superior overall to both my C-map coverage, and the Navionics coverage on my iPad, both of which featured occasional omissions... If one were relying on C-Map alone, for instance, this strange 'gap' in the coverage approaching Frenchmans Tickle in heavy fog could easily have resulted in disaster, had I not had a paper chart to 'fill in the blanks' with the requisite details...

best regards,

Jon