The Kind of Detail You Won’t Find Anywhere Else
From south Puget Sound to Ketchikan, Alaska including the west coast of Vancouver Island, this popular annual guide—called the “bible for Northwest cruising”— provides detailed information about marinas, marine parks, fuel docks, U.S./Canada border crossings, customs, VHF radio requirements, and more.
Some popular cruising areas covered:
- Puget Sound (includes Hood Canal)
- San Juan Islands
- Canadian Gulf Islands (including Victoria)
- Vancouver and Howe Sound
- Princess Louisa Inlet
- Desolation Sound
- Johnstone Strait and adjacent waterways
- Queen Charlotte Strait and adjacent waterways
- West Coast of Vancouver Island
- Inside Passage North to Ketchikan, Alaska
Easy-to-Use Format
The Waggoner is an easy reference to use. To find the page you need, turn to the index, table of contents, or the locator maps in the front of the book. Charts for each area are listed right up front in the chapters. The Waggoner’s detailed listings of marine facilities are logically organized and updated each year. Text and listings are complemented by maps, maps, and more maps—143 maps in the 2011 edition.
“We’ve been boating for 25 years. Best guide we’ve ever found.”
Gary & Joyce Clyde, Kirkland, WA
Boaters Love Our Maps
The Waggoner’s maps, showing the coverage of each chapter, the harbors, and individual marinas, include the kind of detail you won’t find anywhere else. They show approach routes and facilities, and take much of the anxiety out of entering a harbor for the first time.
Maps of individual marinas detail the entrances and markers, shoal areas, dock layout, and location of the guest moorage and key facilities. Generally, if it’s not obvious how to get in and where to find what you need, the Waggoner provides a marina map.
A “Good Read:” The Waggoner’s Descriptions, Sidebar Features and Articles
More than a catalog of listings and maps, the Waggoner is praised as a “good read.” The Waggoner is full of navigation tips, weather lore, anchoring ideas, and local water knowledge. While much of the text is serious, much is written with humor. Serious sidebar features and descriptions explain tide-rips, reversing tidal rapids, stern-tie lines, shellfish toxins, and more. Lighter pieces and descriptions include the “lost-in-the-'50s” flavor of downtown Olympia; the proper attitude while waiting at the Ballard Locks (“it takes as long as it takes, and that’s how it is”); the importance of whimsey in cruise plans; and the discovery of a genuine, fur-bearing trout (very rare) in Prince Rupert. These stories are intended to entertain but also instruct, giving an “insider’s look” at hazards, joys, and just plain facts of Northwest boating.
Reference Pages, Too
The Waggoner includes “Green Pages”—reference pages with conversion tables (including a new barometric pressure scale), Morse code, Beaufort Wind Scale, VHF channels for Washington and B.C. waters, and a handy calendar. The Waggoner also contains telephone listings of telephone listings for U.S. and Canadian Customs, towing and emergency services.
We hope you find the Waggoner Guide a useful tool and know that we always appreciate hearing from our readers, especially information that will make the print and online guides more useful or accurate and, in doing so, assist other boaters.
