I read some years ago that between Brighton and Bournemouth (about ninety-fives miles apart) on the south coast of England there are the largest number of registered leisure craft in the world. I doubt that has changed and in the centre of this area is the Solent. If you fancy sailing around the ports and harbours you'll really find this book very useful.
The Solent is about twenty-eight miles east to west with twelve harbours and estuaries, protected from weather extremes by the Isle of Wight. The only real hazards are the commercial vessels, from huge tankers, world class cruise liners (that have Southampton as their home port) to ferries and hydrofoils. But away from this commercial activity you can sail up estuaries towards that pub drink and a meal. The nice thing about the book, I thought, is the information about each place, not just of a marine nature but bits of historical detail and where to go and what to see once you step ashore.
The five chapters cover it all: Western, Central and Eastern, Solent history and the all important Racing the Solent. Colour photos throughout for each location and beautifully designed coloured charts (the book stresses that these are not to be used for navigation) and a really clever idea was to include several aerial shots which give a sort of three-dimensional look to the charts. There is the odd omission of some places: neither Ashlett Creek or Hill Head Harbor are included. Admittedly these are really small anchorages with no facilities but they are included on Admiralty chart 2022. The back of the book has several pages of technical information: tidal streams, waypoints, racing charts, weather, communication frequencies and an index.
I think the book looks so nice that even if you can't use it for sailing the Solent it will make an ideal title for the armchair traveler.
>>>SEE SOME INSIDE PAGES by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.