We have most of the paper charts for where we intend to go. Many of these might not be as up to date as one would like but then again many of them are based on surveys from the 1700 and 1800 hundreds so maybe there more up to date than what we think ;-) Our chart space is limited to 6 4" built-in chart tubes plus a 3" chart draw for the "chart kit type of charts. We also have the cruising guides for wherever we intended to go. Some are 15 years old and others are the latest editions. Both are useful though the newer ones always have more contact info. All that said we have a Garmin handheld with Bluecharts locked away, our Raymarine with C-maps, our tender with Navionics and hopefully soon Coastal Navigator with some decent worldwide charts. So for roughly $800 we have Nova Scotia to Brazil to Central America and part of the west coast of SA in chips. The new Navionics chips will be even better with greater coverage at a lower price, I'm told. We keep the large scale passage chart close at hand but seldom do more than reference it. The C-map and CN are both up and active. We come from a world where knowing where you are within several miles while offshore was considered good. To dwell on a xtrack error of yards or tenths of a mile causes us to chuckle. Once we get within sight or sounding of land we do a lot of mental DR until we a comfortable with out location. We never, never, never approach a strange landfall at night. Oh, did I say never? Better to stand off and wait for the eyes to be able to work and make sure that what is displayed and what the chart might say agrees with what you see. So my advice would be to get the large scale charts you need for a month or two of the passage and then pick-up from cruisers going the other way their no longer needed ones. As always YMMV, Cheers Dave & Nancy Swan Song Roughwater 58 Caribbean Cruise '07