Florida Gulf Coast Quick Reference Cruising Guide

Florida Gulf Coast Quick Reference Cruising Guide

The Florida Gulf Coast Quick Reference Cruising Guide is a topic-organized, scan-in-seconds reference for cruising Florida's Gulf Coast, from the Dry Tortugas and Key West up the west coast of Florida, around the Big Bend, and west to Mobile, Alabama.

Built for cruisers, liveaboards, and Great Loopers, the guide answers the questions that come up whether you are planning tomorrow's run at anchor or making the call at the helm: which anchorage is protected from the forecast wind, where the next deep-enough pass and fuel dock are, where to reprovision or pump out, and which yard can lift your boat.

Most evenings aboard start the same way: cross-checking apps, notes, and a stack of guidebooks to build tomorrow's list of fuel, water, groceries, pumpouts, protected anchorages, and bridges.

The Florida Gulf Coast Quick Reference gathers those answers into one place you scan in seconds, and does the same job underway when the question has to be answered right now. That speed matters most on this coast: so much of Florida's Gulf shore is shoal-prone and thinly marked, and the Gulf ICW does not exist across the Big Bend, so depth, inlet, and staging information carries as much weight as anchorages and lives in its own scannable tables.

Organized First by What You're Looking For, Not by Town

The guide separates information by type into tabbed sections, then orders each section along the coast from the Dry Tortugas east to Key West, north up Florida's Gulf coast to the Apalachee Bay area, and west to Mobile, Alabama. Need a pumpout, groceries, or laundry? Turn to Services and look down the column in the area near you. Need to walk the dog? Turn to Anchorages. Every answer is one tab and one glance away, because the answer is a check mark in a column you scan.

There are no charts or chartlets, by design: the clean tables are what make the guide fast, and the Florida Gulf Coast Quick Reference is meant to ride alongside the charts and chartplotter or nav app you already navigate with. Every anchorage is listed by its Active Captain name, and Active Captain overlays on Garmin, Navionics, Aqua Map, and most other nav apps, so you can pull the anchorage up on your own screen, see the details, and quickly create a route there.

What's Inside

The tabbed sections, each ordered along the coast:

• Inlets: tide, current, and notes on shoaling, traffic, and which passes need local knowledge.
• Anchorages: Active Captain name, depth, tide, wind and wave protection by direction (N, E, S, W), holding, current, wake, and a dog-walking rating.
• Free Docks: depth, tide, time limits, and access notes.
• Bridges: clearance, tide, VHF channel, and opening schedules or restrictions.
• Services: fuel (diesel and gas), water, groceries, laundry, showers, restaurants, pumpout, and marine supply, plus fuel-dock depth, VHF, phone, propane refills, and walking distance to groceries.
• Navigation Alerts: shoaling reports, cuts, algae blooms and red tide, crab and lobster pots, seagrass, and Gulf ICW marker guidance.
• Haulouts and Boat Yards: travel-lift capacity, maximum beam, maximum length, depth, and whether DIY work or staying aboard is allowed.
• Dredging and Horns: how to read a working dredge's shapes and lights so you pass on the safe side, and the standard sound signals for meeting, crossing, and overtaking.

The Answers Cruisers Reach For Most

A handful of these are the reason boaters turn to this guide, and each is a single glance rather than a paragraph to read:

• Which anchorage is protected from tonight's predicted wind? The Anchorages section has a Protection column with sub-columns for N, E, S, and W. You'll see a check mark in each column the anchorage provides shelter from. So if you need an anchorage with north protection, just look down the N column in the area near you. Need SW? Look for places with both S and W.
• Where do I fuel, water up, reprovision, and do laundry? The Services section has columns for fuel, water, groceries, laundry, showers, restaurants, pumpout, and marine supply, with fuel-dock depth, VHF, phone, and whether propane refills are available. Again, check marks make it simple to know what's where, and the guide also lists how far the nearest grocery is. Know that the stop you choose will have everything you need.
• Can I get the dog ashore? Every anchorage carries a dog-walking rating for whether and how well you can land and walk the dog, with notes flagging where dogs are kept off the beaches or not allowed ashore. On a coast thick with state parks, wildlife refuges, and bird rookeries, that is not something a chart tells you.
• How deep is that pass, and which side of the dredge is safe? Inlets and navigation alerts carry tide, current, and current shoaling reports, and the Dredging section shows how to read a working dredge's shapes and lights so you pass on the safe side.
• A free dock for the night, or a yard that fits my boat? Free docks are listed with depth and time limits, and every haulout shows maximum beam and length, so you know which yard can take your boat before you pick up the phone.

Rechecked for Every Edition

This coast changes fast. Channels shoal and shift, bridges and businesses come and go, anchoring rules change, and an unusually large share of west-coast marinas and docks have been opening, closing, and reopening as the area recovers from recent storms.

Every entry is reconfirmed for each edition. Details are verified through personal cruising, company websites, charts, reports from other boaters, and direct phone calls to marinas, boatyards, stores, and bridge tenders, with the door held open for late changes right up until the edition uploads to the printer. A dated banner on the cover tells you when the information was last confirmed.

How the Guide Fits Your Cruising

The Florida Gulf Coast Quick Reference rides alongside the charts, chartplotter, and nav apps you navigate with, and for the day-to-day cruising decisions it is the reference you will actually reach for. Other cruising guides are worth carrying for aerial photos, town history, and sightseeing, but you will not flip through them to find a laundromat or a pumpout.

The spiral-bound print edition is 8.5 by 5.5 inches, with lay-flat binding on rugged, glare-free, heavyweight paper and a matte finish, plus colored section tabs so you flip straight to what you need.

Details

• Coverage: Florida's Gulf coast, from the Dry Tortugas and Key West up the west coast of Florida, around the Big Bend, and west to Mobile, Alabama, including the Everglades and Ten Thousand Islands, Southwest Florida, Tampa Bay, the Panhandle, and the Gulf ICW (GICW)
• Organization: tabbed quick-reference tables, by topic and then by location along the coast
• Sections: Inlets, Anchorages, Free Docks, Bridges, Services, Navigation Alerts, Haulouts and Boat Yards, Dredging, Horns
• Anchorage data: wind-protection direction (N, E, S, W), depth, tide, holding, current, wake, dog-walking rating, Active Captain names
• Format: spiral-bound print
• Print specs: 8.5 by 5.5 inches, rugged glare-free heavyweight paper, lay-flat spiral binding, section tabs, matte finish
• Best for: building the night-before plan and answering the at-the-helm question, alongside your charts and apps
• Made in: designed and printed in the USA
• Edition: July 2025, with every entry reconfirmed for this edition and a dated banner on the cover