I. Salty Southeast Cruisers' Net Adds to "Chart View"  Features
This is going to be a newsletter mostly devoted to new features, services and data we've just added to the Salty Southeast Cruisers' Net. Sit back, read, enjoy and please make use of these new services, all of which remain free of charge to the cruising community, without the need for a user name or password!
 First up is an enhancement of our site's "Chart View" function. It's no secret Chart View has been "the" single most popular aspect of the Cruiser's Net since its introduction some two years ago. Members of the cruising community by the hundreds have been clicking links and chartlets for the past 24 months, and opening interactive "Chart View" pages centered on various marinas, anchorages and navigational problem areas. These Chart View functions remain in place and unchanged.
What we have done is add to this feature by setting up easy links to Chart View pages centered on the various ports of call here in the Southeastern USA. Of course, heretofore, you could always open a very general Chart View page of a particular coastline, South Carolina for instance, and pan and zoom in to a port of call, such as Charleston. Now, we've done that work for you.
An example is certainly worth another thousand words, so please take a moment to  follow this example. Go to our home page at:
http://www.CruisersNet.net
Locate the red, vertically stacked menus on the right side of the page, and click on "South Carolina." A sub-menu will appear, with a blue background. Now, click on the "Chart View" menu item. A new sub-sub menu will open. The first choice is "South Carolina General." If you clicked on this choice, you would get the same, general SC Map/Chart you've always seen. Instead, click on "Charleston, SC." After you do, a Chart View page will open, pre-set to center on and zoom into the location of this popular port of call.
 PLEASE REMEMBER THAT THIS CHART VIEW PAGE (and, in fact any Chart View page) CENTERED ON CHARLESTON IS NOT A STATIC IMAGE. You can click anywhere on the Chart View page, hold down the left mouse button and pan (drag) the image. You could, if your finger held out, pan all the way north to Maine, or south to Key West.
Also, please remember that by clicking the "Hybrid" button in the top right of the Chart View page, you can switch to a satellite photo view, and by clicking the "Map"button, you can switch to a road map view. Pretty neat, huh!
This new, what I will call, "Ports of Call" Chart View function works the same for the  North Carolina, Georgia, Eastern Florida, Florida Keys and Western Florida coastlines. Just go to the red, vertically stacked menus on the right side of all Cruisers' Net pages (except Chart View pages), and click on the coastline of your choice.
Happy Charting!!!! |
II. Archived "Alerts" Now Available on the Cruisers' Net  Web Site
We use "Constant Contact" to formulate and distribute all our SSECN Alerts, including this missive. By the way, we strongly recommend "Constant Contact" (http://www.ConstantContact.com) to anyone and everyone in the cruising community who sends newsletters to more than fifty fellow cruisers.
 Very recently, Constant Contact, has added an archive service for all newsletters sent through their service. This new service is even neater than it sounds, as the archived newsletters are saved in web (html) format, and each has its own, unique web address.
That has allowed us to begin offering a look back at past "Alerts." While, as time goes by, some of this data will become dated, and some links may eventually not work as dated articles are deleted, other portions of the various Alerts will remain valuable to the cruising community for years to come.
We have chosen to archive all 2011 Alerts, and will add new Alerts as they are  published. One word of warning - to add archived Alerts, they must first be sent to you, our SSECN Alert subscribers. So, if you go to the Archived Alerts Index immediately after a newsletter is sent, you may not yet see a link to the latest edition.
Enough about that. To access our new SSECN Alert Index page, please go to our home page at:
http://www.CruisersNet.net
 Locate the "Sp. Features" blue menu at the top of the page. Hover your mouse pointer over "Sp. Features" and a drop down menu will appear. "Click on "SSECN Alert Archives." This click will open an index page featuring headlines describing the contents of each Alert. Just follow a link to the Alert of your choice.
Hope everyone finds this new feature useful. Our compliments to the good people at Constant Contact who are providing this new service for only a very small, additional monthly charge! |
 III. SSECN Marina Directories Updated and Enhanced
Our intrepid marina/fuel price editor, Captain Kaye Adams, has been hard at work updating and adding to the data in our various Marina Directories. So far, this enhanced info appears in our North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Eastern Florida - St. Johns River Marina Directories. Florida Keys and Western Florida are coming soon.
 Now, in addition to fresh updates on such vital data as overnight dockage charges, we are providing enhanced shoreside dining and provisioning info, plus even more data about the types of dockage and charges you will encounter.
And, may I take a moment to remind one and all that, unlike some other nautical sites which derive their data mostly from user input. the vast majority of our marina stats are the product of my thirty years as a cruising guide author, visiting every marina and anchorage for which we provide coverage from North Carolina to the Florida - Alabama state line.
Our new data is derived from either personally visiting each marina and/or an  in-depth conversation with the facility's dockmaster! By taking this objective approach, we feel confident that we are providing the best information possible to the cruising community.
Of course, let me be very, very clear, THE CRUISERS' NET WANTS AND NEEDS YOUR INPUT AND REVIEWS OF MARINAS AND ANCHORAGES! This is vital data to our fellow cruisers, and its worth is beyond measure. It's just that we use this important input as comments/reviews, not for our base-line/reference data.
 So, we urge you to use our enhanced Marina Directories even more than you have been. You can follow the links below, but, remember, these will give you ALL the marinas on the various coastlines. To narrow this down, use the red, vertically stacked menus on the right side of all Cruisers' Net pages, except Chart View. Click on the coastline of your choice - click "Marinas" and then pick from the geographic sub-regions in the drop down menus.
All North Carolina Marinas: http://cruisersnet.net/category/nc-marinas/ All South Carolina Marinas: http://cruisersnet.net/category/sc-marinas/ All Georgia Marinas: http://cruisersnet.net/category/marinas-georgia/ All Eastern Florida Marinas http://cruisersnet.net/category/east-fl-marinas/ All St. Johns River Marina: http://cruisersnet.net/category/east-fl-st-johns-river-marinas/ |
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IV. Salty Southeast Cruisers' Net Fuel Price Pages Updated As Of 5/4/11
I am pleased to report that we have just finished telephoning ALL our fuel stops in VA to NC Line, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Western Florida, Eastern Florida, Florida Keys and Western Florida. All gasoline and diesel fuel prices have been updated! We urge one and all to take advantage of this free service by following one of the links below.
 VA to NC Fuel Prices:
North Carolina Fuel Prices:
South Carolina Fuel Prices:
Georgia Fuel Prices:
St. Johns River Fuel Prices:
 That's all for now. Good luck and good cruising to all!
Claiborne Young
Salty Southeast Cruisers' Net
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