KAVENGA'S CHART LENDING LIBRARY

For cruising vessels passing through Banderas Bay, we have a paper chart library covering virtually all of the Pacific, Caribbean and many other parts of the world as well. There is no charge for borrowing charts for the purpose of making copies for your personal use. We only ask that you take very good care of them and return them in order using our Sequence Numbering system. 

Before coming to the library, review the chart inventory online here on our website and make a preliminary list of the charts you think you want using our chart sequence numbers (not the official chart catalog number, not the Excel spreadsheet line number).  Here's the link to the library inventory Excel spreadsheet: Chart List. Feel free to copy or extract from the spreadsheet.

There is an architectural copy shop (Imprecopy) very close by (15-min walk) at the Plaza Marina shopping mall that makes full-size copies. Office Depot and Office Max in the Hotel Zone also make full size copies. Costs average around 30 pesos per chart. NOTE: the copy shops will most likely sort the charts by size to eliminate the need to be constantly changing machines or size of paper. Therefore, you will get the charts back in random sequence and it is your responsiblity to re-sort and store them in their respective bags when you return them.

Remember that these charts are being provided free of charge, and in many cases are copies of old editions. It is always the captain’s or navigator’s responsibility to use them accordingly. They are intended to supplement other navigational tools on board your vessel including your eyeballs and your brains!

If you would like to “lighten ship” and have charts you no longer need, we would be happy to take them off your hands with the hope that they add to or improve the library, and with the understanding that we will never sell or rent the charts for our benefit. If one of the copies you borrow is in bad shape and you'd care to make an extra copy for the library, that too would be most appreciated.

You can contact us (Steve & Kay Van Slyke) via VHF radio, callsign “Kavenga” in Banderas Bay, or by phone in Mexico, we can be reached at 322-221-2080 or cell 044-322-157-0722 or via Skype at svkavenga. We live in the Marina Las Palmas II condominiums above C Dock in Marina Vallarta.

Once you have taken the charts to be copied, please keep us informed if your schedule for returning them changes. Bear in mind that our daily plans may revolve around your stated schedule, and that other crews may be waiting to borrow the charts you've taken. Generally, we prefer not to have charts returned after 7PM and our VHF radio is normally turned off by then. If you have an urgent need to return the charts after 7PM, please let us know in advance and we will try to accommodate you.