New England Quick Reference Cruising Guide

The Maine & New England Cruising Guide is a quick-reference cruising guide covering the coast from Buzzard's Bay and Cape Cod to Eastport, Maine. It is built for the two moments that eat up a cruiser's day on this coast: the hour you spend each evening planning tomorrow's run, and the split-second decisions you make underway. Instead of reading through pages of narrative, you flip to the section you need, run your eye down a column, and have your answer.

Cruising New England means a new anchorage almost every night, a coast broken into thousands of islands and harbors, fog that can settle in for days, big tides and fast currents, and services that are often miles apart. Most cruisers handle the planning by jumping between a thick reference guide, paper charts, a chartplotter, and crowd-sourced app reviews. This guide pulls the fast-answer information out of all of that and puts it in one place you can scan in seconds. It is not a replacement for your charts and detailed guides. It is the quick-reference layer that rides alongside them.

Plan Tomorrow's Run in Minutes, Not an Hour

Every evening at anchor, the same questions come up: Where can I anchor tomorrow night with protection from the forecast wind? If I push on, how far is the next decent spot? Where is the next fuel stop, and is there a pumpout? Which free docks allow an overnight stay? How do I time that bridge or tidal passage? This guide already has those answers laid out by topic and ordered south to north, so you map out the next day's stops and timing without digging through chapters or hopping between sources.

The same organization works in the moment. When the anchorage you wanted is full, or the weather turns and you need somewhere protected right now, you flip to the right tab and find the nearest alternative without taking your attention off the boat for long.

Anchorages, Moorings, and Storm Holes for This Coast

The heart of the guide is its anchorage and mooring tables. For each spot, a single row tells you depth, tide range, and wind and wave protection from each direction (north, east, south, west), plus holding, current, wake and swell, dog-walking access, dinghy access, and whether moorings are available. Depths are given at mean lower low water. The Notes column adds the local detail that matters, including where you actually land the dinghy, such as a town dock, a public boat ramp, or a beach.

A dedicated Storm Holes section lists the most protected spots in each region, scored with the same detail as the anchorages, so you can identify a weather refuge before you need it rather than scrambling when a front is bearing down. On a coast where the weather can change quickly, knowing your nearest bolt-hole in advance is one of the guide's most useful features.

Getting Ashore: Dog Walking, Dinghy Landings, and Launch Service

One of the most common frustrations cruising with a dog, or simply wanting to stretch your legs, is figuring out where you can actually get ashore. Plenty of anchorages have no easy landing, or only a tiny patch of shoreline, and cruisers often end up scrolling through app reviews hoping someone mentioned it.

This guide rates dog-walking access at every anchorage and flags dinghy access, and the Notes tell you where the dinghy lands. For harbors where you would rather not splash the dinghy at all, launch service is noted in the Services section. Taken together, the guide answers the whole "can I get ashore here, and how" question in one quick scan.

Names That Match Your Navigation App

Anchorage names in this guide use Active Captain names, so they overlay directly on the navigation apps and chartplotters you already run, including Garmin, Navionics, and Aqua Map. Find a promising anchorage in the table, then search that exact name in your app to drop straight to the location. The guide is designed to fit your existing navigation stack rather than ask you to choose between tools.

Current for 2026, Verified From Scratch

This is a brand-new guide, built from the ground up for 2026, with every entry confirmed for this first edition. That matters most for the information that goes stale fastest: marina and service listings, phone numbers, fuel availability, bridge schedules, and dredging activity. When you reach for a number or a service in this guide, it reflects a fresh, from-scratch verification rather than a figure carried forward from an older book.

Everything You Need, Organized by What You're Looking For

The guide is arranged first by the kind of information you need, then by location from south to north, so you go straight to the right tab and scan. Sections include:

• Anchorages & Moorings: depth, tide, protection by direction, holding, current, wake and swell, dog walking, dinghy access, moorings, and notes on where to land.
• Storm Holes: the best-protected spots in each region, with the same detail as anchorages, for planning ahead of weather.
• Inlets & Canals: tide range, current strength, and notes on timing and hazards.
• Free Docks: depth, tide range, stay limits, and notes on any bridges to reach them.
• Bridges: clearance, tide, VHF channel, opening schedule, and contact details.
• Services: fuel (diesel and gas), slips, docks, moorings, pumpouts, showers, laundry, Dockwa availability, launch service, restaurants, grocery stores with name and exact distance, propane fills, and marine supply.
• Navigation Alerts: caution areas including lobster-pot gear and the Cape Cod Canal traffic rules for larger vessels.
• Haulouts: travel-lift capacity, maximum beam and length, whether DIY work is allowed, whether you can stay aboard, and contact details.
• Dredging: where dredging operations are underway and which side is safe to pass.
• Horns & Whistles: a quick reference for sound signals between vessels.

Built for the Cockpit

The spiral binding lies flat so the guide stays open and hands-free at the helm, and bright section tabs let you jump straight to what you need. The pages use a heavy-duty, glare-resistant matte stock that stands up to humidity and handling and resists smearing, so it holds up to life aboard a boat. There are no maps or chartlets beyond an overview map, by design, because the clean tables are what make it fast to scan.

Available as a spiral-bound book, an instant PDF download, a Kindle edition, and a bundle of the spiral-bound book with the PDF.

Who It's For

Sailors and powerboaters cruising the New England coast, whether you are working your way Downeast for the summer, heading north on a longer cruise, or exploring closer to home around Cape Cod, Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts Bay, Casco Bay, or Penobscot Bay. It suits first-time visitors who want the local detail without the reading, and seasoned New England cruisers who want one fast, current reference within reach at the helm.

Details

• Title: Maine & New England Cruising Guide
• Coverage: Buzzard's Bay / Cape Cod to Eastport, Maine
• Format: Quick-reference cruising guide, organized by topic then south to north
• Edition: 2026, first edition, every entry verified from scratch
• Sections: Anchorages & Moorings, Storm Holes, Inlets & Canals, Free Docks, Bridges, Services, Navigation Alerts, Haulouts, Dredging, Horns & Whistles
• Anchorage data: depth (at MLLW), tide range, wind and wave protection by direction, holding, current, wake and swell, dog walking, dinghy access, moorings, notes
• App compatibility: anchorage names use Active Captain names for direct overlay in Garmin, Navionics, Aqua Map, and other apps
• Binding: spiral-bound, lay-flat, with section tabs
• Paper: heavy-duty, glare-resistant matte, humidity- and smudge-resistant
• Available formats: spiral-bound book, PDF download, Kindle edition, and book-plus-PDF bundle
• Maps: overview map only; no chartlets, by design, for fast scanning