The Complete Boatin Reference for Puget Sound, San Juan Islands, Gulf Islands, Princess Louisa Inlet, Desolation Sound, West Coast of Vancouver Island, Inside Passage North to Prince Rupert, B.C.

Robert Hale, editor/publisher
304 pages

If you’re cruising the Pacific Northwest this year, you’ll want Robert Hale’s new 2000 Waggoner Cruising Guide. From Puget Sound to Prince Rupert, B.C., including the West Coast of Vancouver Island, this popular boating guide provides complete information about marinas and marine parks; U.S./Canada border crossings and Customs; and VHF radio requirements. Now with 304 pages (20 more than last year), the Waggoner is illustrated with 132 maps and 243 photos. Thirteen of the maps and 91 of the photos are new. The book has more than 1000 updates and changes.

Robert Hale, longtime Northwest boater and author, spent 11 weeks in 1999 cruising between Olympia, Washington and Prince Rupert B.C., and down the West Coast of Vancouver Island. His hands-on research is apparent in the book’s competent descriptions of the anchorages, facilities, and sometimes tricky waters of the Northwest.

The Waggoner’s maps, showing the coverage of each chapter, the harbors, and individual marinas, are one of its most popular features. They show approach routes and facilities, and take much of the anxiety out of entering a harbor for the first time. The Waggoner is fully indexed.

The Waggoner is an easy reference to use. Marina listings begin with the address, telephone, fax, e-mail, and VHF call channel. Then follow amenities such as power, water, showers, laundry, fuel, haulout, groceries, and so forth, and finally, any comments. This book is far more than a catalog of marinas and anchorages, however. It is a treasure 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 stories and descriptions explain tide-rips, reversing tidal rapids, stern-tie lines, chart-making, shellfish toxins, and more. Lighter stories 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 plight of three hungry men trying to row a dinghy ashore at Oak Harbor; and the discovery of a genuine, fur-bearing trout (very rare) in Prince Rupert.

The 2000 Waggoner Cruising Guide, Robert Hale, editor/publisher
Published by Weatherly Press, Bellevue, Wash.
Paperback, 304 pp. including index.

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