Florida Keys & Okeechobee Quick Reference Cruising Guide

Florida Keys & Florida Loop Cruising Guide: Plan Tomorrow's Run in Minutes

The Florida Keys & Florida Loop Cruising Guide is a fast-scan quick-reference for cruising the entire Florida Loop: the Florida Keys, the Okeechobee Waterway, Southwest Florida, and Florida's east coast from Stuart to Miami, all in one book. Instead of laying everything out by mile marker, it organizes the answers by what you actually need to know, then by location clockwise around the loop, so you can plan the next day's run in minutes rather than spending an evening flipping through pages and apps.

It covers the full circle: Stuart south to Miami on the ICW, down the Keys to Key West and the Dry Tortugas, up the Southwest Florida coast through Marco Island, Naples and Fort Myers, and across the Okeechobee Waterway back to Stuart. Because the Keys route and the cross-state Okeechobee route are both inside one book, you don't have to decide which way you're going when you buy it. That makes it a natural fit for Great Loop cruisers and snowbirds heading down Florida who often won't settle on the Keys-versus-Okeechobee decision until the last few days, when weather, draft, and timing finally make the call.

Every cruiser knows the nightly routine: where can I anchor tomorrow, which free docks allow an overnight stay, where's the next fuel or pump-out, how do I time the bridges and the locks, and how far is the next decent anchorage if I decide to push on. This guide is built to answer exactly those questions at a glance, then ride along in the cockpit for the next day's run.

Choose Tonight's Anchorage by Wind Direction

The hardest call of the day in this cruising ground is where to drop the hook for the night, especially in the Keys, where good anchorages are limited and a wind shift can turn a calm spot into a rough one. Each anchorage in the guide is rated for protection from each direction, north, east, south, and west, so you can run your eye down the columns and stop at a spot that's protected from tomorrow's forecast wind. Anchorages that make good storm holes are flagged separately, so when weather is coming you can find the most protected water ahead of time instead of scrambling for it.

Every anchorage entry also gives you depth, tide range, holding, current, wake exposure, dog-walking quality, and dinghy access, with notes on how to get in and what to watch for, so you can weigh your options and pick the right one before you ever change course.

Anchorage Names That Drop Straight Into Your Navigation App

All anchorage names in the guide are Active Captain names, so they overlay directly on the navigation app you already use, including Aqua Map, Garmin, and Navionics. Find an anchorage in the guide, search the same name in your app, and go straight to it. Rather than competing with your chartplotter and crowd-sourced apps, the guide feeds them, pulling the scattered details into one place you can scan and slotting in alongside the tools already on your boat.

What's Inside

The guide is organized by topic, with tabs, so you go straight to the kind of answer you need and then find your location in order around the loop:

• Anchorages & moorings: protection by direction, storm-hole flags, depth, tide, holding, current, wake, dog walking, dinghy access, and Active Captain names.
• Inlets & cuts: tide, current, distance to the ICW, all-weather suitability, and notes on timing and hazards.
• Free docks: depth, tide, and stay limits, so an inexpensive overnight stop is easy to find.
• Bridges & locks: clearance, tide, VHF channel, opening schedules, and contact details, covering the opening bridges of the east coast and the locks and fixed bridges of the Okeechobee Waterway.
• Services: fuel (diesel and gas), slips, moorings, pump-outs, showers, laundry, groceries with distance, propane, water, and marine supply, with VHF and phone.
• Navigation alerts: shoaling, strong-current areas, algae blooms, crab and lobster pot zones, and other caution areas, with the nature of each problem spelled out.
• Haulouts & boatyards: travel-lift capacity, maximum beam and length, depth, whether DIY work is allowed, whether you can stay aboard, and contact details.
• Dredging and horn signals: how to read and pass a working dredge safely, and what the standard whistle signals mean.

There are no chartlets, by design. Pages of charts and narrative are what make a spot hard to find in a hurry. Clear tables let you scan a single column, land on the one fact you came for, and move on.

Available Right Now, No Mailing Address Needed

Sometimes you realize you're about to enter water you have no reference for and you want the guide today. Sometimes you're a week or a month out but moving too often to have anything shipped to a marina, or you don't use marinas at all. Either way, an electronic edition puts the guide in your hands immediately, with no shipping address, and it travels with you wherever the boat goes.

Choose the format that fits how you cruise:

• PDF: downloads instantly, with clickable section tabs, searchable bookmarks, and tappable phone numbers and links. Load it on every device aboard.
• Kindle: downloads instantly and reads in the Kindle app you already know, syncing across your devices.
• Spiral-bound print: 8.5" x 5.5", lay-flat binding on heavyweight paper, for paper at the helm.
• Print + PDF bundle: paper aboard plus the searchable electronic copy on your tablet.

Every Edition Fully Re-Checked

On this route the time-sensitive details, bridge and lock schedules, shoaling, and dredging, change constantly, so the guide is rebuilt rather than reprinted. Every entry is reconfirmed for each new edition, verified through personal cruising experience, company websites, charts, reports from other boaters, and direct phone calls to marinas, boatyards, stores, bridge tenders, and lock tenders. The door is held open for late changes right up until the edition uploads to the printer, so nothing known to be out of date goes to press. A banner on the cover tells you when the information was last confirmed, so you can see at a glance how current your copy is.

Details

• Coverage: the full Florida Loop, Florida Keys, Okeechobee Waterway, Southwest Florida (Marco Island to Fort Myers), and Florida's east coast from Stuart to Miami, including Key West and the Dry Tortugas.
• Best for: cruisers planning the next day's run in the Keys or Southwest Florida, and Great Loop and snowbird cruisers crossing Florida who want both the Keys route and the Okeechobee route in one book.
• Organization: by topic with tabs, then by location clockwise around the loop.
• Sections: Anchorages & Moorings, Inlets/Cuts, Free Docks, Bridges/Locks, Services, Nav Alerts, Haulouts, Dredging, Horns.
• Anchorage data: protection by direction (N/E/S/W), storm-hole flags, depth, tide, holding, current, wake, dog walking, dinghy access.
• Anchorage names: Active Captain names, for overlay on Aqua Map, Garmin, Navionics, and other navigation apps.
• Formats: spiral-bound print (8.5" x 5.5", lay-flat, heavyweight paper), instant PDF, Kindle, and print + PDF bundle.
• Edition: 2025 edition (3rd edition), cover dated November 2025.
• Authors: Larry Webber and Carolyn Shearlock.
• Updated: every entry reconfirmed for each new edition, with a "last confirmed" date printed on the cover.