Best Guides FL to Maine?

[2hullvenus]

Hi,

I've been off the water a few years. Last time I made this trip I used Skipper Bob's guide to anchorages in the ICW.

What's changed?

What is my best option for cruising guides for the ICW?

Thank you.

[AnchorageGuy]

It will depend on how old your copy is. I would suggest getting some updated guides. Our own anchorage guide covers from Hampton Roads/Norfolk to Key West and includes the St. Johns River. It contains over 500 anchorages and free docks. We also have one for the Chesapeake Bay. Keep in mind that these are not cruising guides but only for anchorages and free dock. Many cruising guides like Waterway Guide are excellent and providing lots of insight and information but are light on anchorages. So these make the perfect companion. Also have a look at cruisersnet.net for the latest info on problems along the ICW, marina information and events along the waterway. Another excellent website to locate marinas and get details is marinalife.com. Have a great trip. Chuck

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Venus.

[Waterway Guide]

Welcome aboard!

Our cruising guides are always updated each year, as are the Skipper Bobs, AnchorageGuy’s anchorage guides and some of the others out there – but some are not.

Our Northern guide covers from Maine thru NJ. Our Chesapeake Guide covers the Chesapeake. Our Atlantic ICW Guide covers from Norfolk to Jacksonville FL. Our Southern Guide covers all of Florida and the Gulf of Mexico thru TX.


We also have a website with constant updates to the guides and a lot of planning tools – free to use, no signing up. I also send out a Cruiser’s Weekly Update email newsletter – also free.



Hope this helps…happy cruising!

[swpeterson]

https://activecaptain.com/X.php


Active Captain is ALL you need. It is real time for places to drop the hook or stay at a marina. It is real time for hazards and what is happening on the water right that second because it is updated by real live people all the time. And it's free. It doesn't get better than that.

[2hullvenus]

Originally Posted by swpeterson

https://activecaptain.com/X.php


Active Captain is ALL you need. It is real time for places to drop the hook or stay at a marina. It is real time for hazards and what is happening on the water right that second because it is updated by real live people all the time. And it's free. It doesn't get better than that.

Thanks everyone.

I had active captain way back when as well.

These days, the boat runs on a Google Nexus 10 tablet. (New OpenCPN is outstanding on it!) Unfortunately, Active Captain is stuck in the stone ages aimed at laptops without any compatibility with Android (or iOS?). It's all flash based and so is unusable at my nav station.

I'll check the other guides, i suppose.

[swpeterson]

So you would choose stone age print materials over real time views. Interesting.

[2hullvenus]

Originally Posted by swpeterson

So you would choose stone age print materials over real time views. Interesting.

Well, the print materials are sure a lot more useful than a stone age website showing nothing but this on Android (and possibly iOS devices):

[jessehunt]

I use Activecaptain on my iPad, and it works very well.

[2hullvenus]

Originally Posted by jessehunt

I use Activecaptain on my iPad, and it works very well.

Ah. Ok. So it only doesn't support the most widely used OS.

Do they have any plans to fix that, like OpenCPN did?

I'm not saying I don't want to use it...

[Cormorant]

I like paper guides for the ability to sit back and browse through them.

But Active Captain can be a big help for up-to-the moment info, or for a wider range of opinions. For Android, install MX Mariner and access the AC database through that.

[kerrydeare]

Originally Posted by swpeterson

So you would choose stone age print materials over real time views. Interesting.

Many stone age implements are not subject to battery failure. I am not referring to the newer models, of course.