Southeast Asia Pilot by Bill O’Leary & Grenville Fordham   Bill O’Leary & Grenville Fordham

Reader’s review

Southeast Asia Pilot by Bill O’Leary & Grenville Fordham

Celebrating its 20th Anniversary, the 7th edition of the Southeast Asia Pilot – published in May 2024 and available printed or as an eBook – encompasses approximately 600,000 square miles of some of the best cruising grounds in the world.

In this day and age of ‘e-cruising’ – where everything can be available electronically thanks to advances in communication such as Starlink and the smartphone – the ability to have this latest edition of the Southeast Asia Pilot in an e-Book format is a real bonus for sailors in the region.

Beautiful photography, along with mud-maps and GPS locations and easy-to-understand icons, will whet your appetite to explore many of these known locations, but also to encourage you to go and find your own ‘off the beaten track’ destinations and anchorages.

This book carries information on countries and oceans that encompass islands in the Andaman Sea in the west, through the Gulf of Thailand, the Yellow Sea and the South China Sea and further into the Pacific Ocean to north Australia, Vanuatu and the Solomons in the east. The pilot covers 45 degrees of latitude and 60 degrees of longitude. Most of the region lies north and south of the equator in tropical zones and all the information required to pass through or cruise and explore by yacht is presented in an easy-to-reference style.

The authors have compiled the information over more than three decades of personal experience in the region and have invited a number of well-qualified voyagers to update facilities and opportunities in these rapidly developing cruising destinations.

In the latest edition, the authors have also added information on some of the more popular anchorages in Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands, included information on the Cape York Peninsula (Australia), expanded and completely updated Cambodia as well as thorough updates to the Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia chapters – the latter seeing the addition of The Anambas Islands Regency.

At the same time, the introduction in this edition of a lot more dramatic drone photography helps ‘bring anchorages to life’ before you get there.

These updates mean the Southeast Asia Pilot now provides a wealth of information not only for those who are currently cruising in any of these areas at the moment, but will also definitely whet the appetite for those who are still planning and dreaming their live-aboard and cruising lifestyle.

The Southeast Asia Pilot is one of those books that you should have when planning your route through some of Southeast Asia’s most popular and idyllic, but challenging, cruising grounds.

For those who want a good old-fashioned hard-copy, it is possible to get a printed copy of this resource so you can spend hours flicking through the pages when on passage – a must have piece of equipment onboard.

Countries included

Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Palau, Vanuatu, The Solomon Islands and Greater China, each of which are covered in detail.

To keep the printed book within 1KG, the publishers plan to spin off the Mergui Archipelago and the Andaman Islands chapters as free downloadable pdf booklets. They will announce on the website and on social media when those are ready to download.

The eBook retails at THB1,800 – a little less than the printed book – and does not need an internet connection after the first download and authorisation.

Both the eBook and the print version can be bought online at www.southeastasiapilot.com or from one of the resale outlets featured on the website.

Southeast Asia Pilot is published by Phuket Publicity Services (PPS)

This review is courtesy of Noonsite, the internet resource used by sailors venturing to foreign shores for over 20 years and the global bible on country formalities and ports of entry for the cruising community. www.noonsite.com