These guides cover the four cruising regions that generate the most questions from sailors planning their first visit. Each is written for someone who knows how to sail a boat but may not know the specific hazards, seasonal patterns, and must-stop destinations of a particular region. Local knowledge, condensed.
Cruising Puget Sound
Tidal choke points, the Puget Sound Convergence Zone, and the best anchorages from Port Townsend to the San Juan Islands.
- Deception Pass timing
- VTS Seattle
- Port Townsend · Roche Harbor · Gig Harbor
The Chesapeake Bay for Cruisers
200 miles of navigable water and 11,684 miles of tidal shoreline — plus shoaling, crab pots, summer thunderstorms, and the ICW connection at Norfolk.
- Eastern vs. Western Shore
- Annapolis · St. Michaels · Oxford
- ICW Mile 0 at Norfolk
Sailing the Florida Keys
The Atlantic side versus Florida Bay, Boot Key Harbor's cruiser community, reef navigation, and weather windows for the Bahamas crossing from Key West.
- Boot Key Harbor cruiser net
- Gulf Stream crossing windows
- Reef navigation & water color
Great Lakes Sailing: What Ocean Sailors Don't Expect
Short steep chop, fast-moving storms, the North Channel of Lake Huron, the Trent-Severn Waterway, and why October is the hard season cutoff.
- North Channel, Lake Huron
- Trent-Severn Waterway
- Mackinac · Killarney · Tobermory
About These Guides
These cruising guides are editorial resources, not official Coast Guard or NOAA publications. Conditions change. Always verify current chartlet depths, facility information, and weather from official sources before departure. The marina directory lists specific facility details for over 3,500 marinas across North America.