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New Cruising Guide for Coral Sea

by Jack Binder on 28 Sep 2013
Banyandah sailing Jack Binder

When you want to sail somewhere remote, it is the elusive cruising guide that might make the difference between a fantastic experience and an ordinary one. The Coral Sea, off the Great Barrier Reef of Australia, is one of these. Long time sailors and authors Jack and Jude Binder on their yacht Banyandah often sail off the beaten track.

When they were kids they loved to wander about the Coral Sea looking for wrecks and enjoying the huge amount of wild creatures. They have visited most of the Coral Sea reefs and sand islets, setting up Amateur Radio stations on a few of them.


This year, Jack and Jude spent five weeks re-visiting many of their favourites anchorages and have produced an electronic Coral Sea Cruising Guide based of their thirty-five years exploring it. This is their third cruising guide following on the successful Tasmania and South Australia electronic cruising guides released last year.

Available free from their website or an enhanced version with heaps more photos, historical notes, and attractions can be downloaded in three formats for A4 printing/PC/iPads/iPods/Kindles for a $5 contribution.

The Coral Sea occupies that part of the Pacific Ocean off the east coast of Australia between the parallels of Sandy Cape and Torres Strait, bounded by the SW coast of New Caledonia to a line drawn to the Louisiade Archipelago and south coast of Papua New Guinea.

This guide covers those reefs and islets within Australian territory as listed below:

Cato Island Holmes Reef
Porpoise Reef* Lihou Reef
Kenn Reefs* Diamond Islets*
Saumarez Reef Magdelaine Cays
Frederick Reef Willis Islets*
Flora Reef Mellish Reef*
* denotes special destinations

Why the Coral Sea?
A fast, unobstructed passage to Cape York. Unlike the Great Barrier Reef, there is superb diving in clear water without stingers, and great fishing, heaps of wildlife, plenty of solitude.

Anchorages detailed with chart snapshots showing GPS positions:
Tracks defined
Weather Information - including times and frequencies for voice and weather fax
Wrecks noted with historical comments
Great diving- no stingers
Superb fishing
Unobstructed passage to Torres Strait
59 pages
Beautiful Photographs

There are two versions. Simply by clicking the links, you can try the Free on website version or go for the enhanced version

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