Florida Keys and Okeechobee Waterway Quick Reference Cruising Guide

Miami to Key West to Fort Myers and across the Okeechobee in one book

Stop hunting through chapters and apps. Find a protected anchorage, the next fuel, or the right bridge in seconds.

$35.92 USD

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We built this guide around what you need every day.

But we didn't just include what we were always hunting for ourselves. Nope, we asked more than 100 other cruisers what they needed, and how they wanted it laid out.

Here's what they said:

First, make it easy to find what I need in seconds

With our guides, you'll never pore over pages of text, looking for one elusive word like "laundry" or "propane."
Every answer sits in a table you can scan: which anchorages are protected from tonight's wind, where the next fuel is, when the bridge opens.

Step one of using the guide: choosing a topic tab such as Anchorages, Services, or Bridges in the Florida Keys and Okeechobee Waterway Quick Reference cruising guide.

Go to the Right Section

Tabs help you find what you need—fuel, anchorages, bridges, or facilities.

Step two of using the guide: finding your location in order around the Florida Loop within a section of the cruising guide.

Find Your Location
By town or island name or mile marker, in order around the loop.

Step three of using the guide: scanning down the columns to find one fact fast, like anchorage protection by wind direction.

Check the Columns

Look for details like wind protection, bridge heights, or marina services.

Second, include the stuff that's hard to find anywhere else

- Anchorages by protection direction (which way you're covered from tonight's wind)
- Storm holes (where to hide when a front's coming)
- Dog walking at each anchorage
- Services at each inlet for boats over 65' air draft
- Haulouts include max. beam, whether DIY and stayaboard allowed, and other restrictions

Third, include all the rest of it too!

Free Docks

Location
Name
Depth
Tide
Notes

Just one night at a free dock more than pays for a guide!

A bridges and locks page from the Florida Keys and Okeechobee Waterway cruising guide, listing clearance, tide, VHF channel, opening schedules, and contacts.

Bridges & Locks

Location
Name
Clearance
Tide
VHF
Notes, including schedules

Services

Location
Name
VHF
Phone
Depth
Fuel - gas and diesel
Laundry
Showers
Restaurant
Groceries
Water
Pumpout
Marine supplies
Notes, including propane fills and distances to stores

Navigation Alerts

Location
Name
Tide
Notes explaining the nature of the problem area

A haulouts and boatyards page from the Florida Keys and Okeechobee Waterway cruising guide, listing travel-lift capacity, max beam and length, depth, and DIY options.

Haulouts & Boatyards

Location
Name
Phone
Travel lift capacity
Maximum beam
Maximum length
Depth
Allow DIY
Whether can stay on boat
Other restrictions

Inlets

Location
Name
Tide
Current
Distance to ICW (where applicable)
Services for Vessels Over 65' Air Draft
Notes

Fourth, make sure it's accurate and current

A banner on the cover tells you exactly when the information was last confirmed.

Every entry is verified through:
- Personal cruising experience
- Phone calls to marinas, boatyards, stores, and bridge tenders
- Charts, Local Notices to Mariners, and Army Corps of Engineers surveys
- Company websites
Reports from other boaters are only added if we can independently verify the information. We reconfirm every bit of information for every edition.

Fifth, cover all of South Florida

- The east coast from Stuart to Miami.
- The Keys, from Key Largo to Key West and out to the Dry Tortugas, both the Atlantic side (Hawk Channel) and Gulf side.
- The southwest coast through Marco Island, Naples, and Fort Myers.
- And the Okeechobee Waterway between them.
Cruise one corner of it, run up and back, or do the whole Florida Loop — also known as Smuggler's Run.

Any way you do it, it's one guide, and you don't have to decide before you buy.

Sixth, let me choose how I get it: paper or digital

Every format has the same information. Choose how you want to carry it.

Spiral-Bound Print: 8.5" x 5.5" lay-flat design with heavyweight paper
PDF: Download instantly, no need for a shipping address, best on tablet or computer (not phone)
Kindle: print replica, only for use with the Kindle app (cannot be used with Kindle e-readers) on a tablet or computer, not phone
Print+PDF Combo: want a paper copy but also need it now? Get both, and the PDF is half off as a bundle.

Spiral-bound

PDF

Kindle

Print + PDF Combo

Get it instantly

No shipping address needed

Clickable links for marina websites and phone numbers

unreliable

Easy to use in sunlight

No power needed

Just prefer paper

Frequently Asked Questions

I haven't decided whether I'm going through the Keys or across the Okeechobee Waterway — does this one guide really cover both?

Yes. It covers the entire Florida Loop in one book: down the east coast from Stuart to Miami, through the Keys to Key West and the Dry Tortugas, up the southwest coast through Marco Island, Naples, and Fort Myers, and across the Okeechobee Waterway back to Stuart. You can go either way -- or do the whole Florida Loop (also known as Smuggler's Run) -- with just the one guide. No need to commit now!

How current is the information?

This is the November 2025 edition. Every entry is reconfirmed for each edition through personal cruising, phone calls to marinas and bridge tenders, charts, and boater reports, and a dated banner on the cover tells you when it was last confirmed.

Does it cover both sides of the Keys, or just Hawk Channel?

Both. You get the ocean side (Hawk Channel) and the bay and Gulf side, plus the cuts and channels between them, so it works whether you're running outside or inside.

Do I still need other cruising guides?

For the practical decisions — anchorages, fuel, docks, bridges, and services — this guide plus your chartplotter or nav app are all you really need. Other cruising guides are worth carrying if you want aerial photos, town history, and sightseeing, but you won't be flipping through them to find a laundromat or a pumpout.

Will it work with my navigation app?

Yes. Every anchorage is listed by its Active Captain name, which overlays on Garmin, Navionics, Aqua Map, and most other apps, so you can search the exact name and pull the spot up on your own screen, regardless of whether you're using the print, PDF, or Kindle version.

Do you have an app?

We asked cruisers about this, and what they wanted was the option of a digital format that's instant, familiar, and just works, not one more app to manage.

So that's what we built: PDF and Kindle versions. Both are available right after you buy, and once it's on your device, it's yours. No subscription, no login, no signal required, and nothing to update at a marina with one bar. It's technology you already know how to use, and you can share the PDF with anyone else aboard.

Does it have charts or chartlets?

No, by design. Clean tables are what make it fast to scan, and it's built to ride alongside your charts rather than reproduce them.

Is it waterproof?

No. It's printed on rugged, glare-free, lay-flat heavyweight paper built for life aboard, but it isn't waterproof.

There's only one ad in the whole book?

Just one — a 20% discount on Aqua Map charts, our favorite navigation app. Nothing else interrupts the reference.

Real Cruisers Made This Guide

These guides started as an end-of-day conversation over Painkillers at the Annapolis Boat Show, where a few of us on The Boat Galley team realized we were each spending hours every night flipping through guides, apps, and notes just to build the next day's list of fuel stops, anchorages, pumpouts, and bridges.

Someone joked that whoever left first should just send their list to everyone else, and then we stopped laughing: why wasn't there already a guide organized around what cruisers actually need to find?

Larry created a rough draft of the first one, we all saw how it gave us back our evenings for fun instead of list-making, and we haven't stopped since! Our guides now cover six geographic areas, each packed with nearly three times the information of that first draft.

I'm Larry Webber, the creator of all of The Boat Galley's Quick Reference Guides. I've been a full-time singlehanded cruiser for 8 years, including 4 years in the Florida Keys.

Nothing bothers me more than making plans and having them fall apart because the information I was counting on was out of date, so I re-verify everything in each guide, not just the entries someone tells me have changed. Thank goodness for unlimited phone plans!
I'm Carolyn Shearlock, founder of The Boat Galley and a 17-year liveaboard cruiser.

For 10 years, my husband Dave and I based our cruising in the Keys, so this guide is special to me. I added a lot of local knowledge to it, especially in the Anchorages and Services sections, and at our cruiser meet-ups I'm always listening for what else cruisers wish they could find.
I'm Julie Tijerina, the graphic designer who figures out how to pack all this information into tables that are truly useful and still easy to read.

I lived aboard and cruised for 8 years myself, so I know what cruisers need and which details belong together. Every new edition is a fresh challenge as we add more and more.

Curious about our story and what drives us? Learn more about us here.

Our Guarantee

At The Boat Galley, we have one mission: to help you cruise with confidence.

As liveaboard cruisers, we understand the challenges and questions that come with boat life. That’s why we create practical products and courses designed to tackle the same issues we’ve faced ourselves—making your life on the water easier, safer, and more enjoyable.

Try our products and courses for yourself. If they don’t make your boat life better, use our 90-day FREE no-hassle return guarantee.

Made in the USA

Designed in the USA; printed in the USA. Minimal packaging and tough enough to handle life on a boat.

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Florida Keys and Okeechobee Waterway Quick Reference Cruising Guide