Planning Your Boating Cruise

Learn the differences between navigating on roads and waters. How to understand nautical charts, aids to navigation, use chart plotters, and plan your trip electronically.

How to choose a suitable boat for the type of cruising you do. Owning versus chartering. Equipping the boat with appropriate navigation, electrical, and plumbing systems, and more.

A beginner’s guide to fun, confident, safe operation of jet skis. Learn how to get away from and back to a dock, make a pivot turn, recover from a spill, make an emergency stop.

Learn to install and use OpenCPN to plan and navigate routes.

How to select an anchor, line, and other gear…choose a suitable anchorage, deploy and set an anchor, what to do if it’s stuck, how to pick up a mooring, and raft with other boats.