Would you use a site that lets PNW (initially, other locations later) boaters share their trip itineraries?

[BOSCBIJI]

Howdy Folks —

As I start to line up some post retirement 'keep myself busy' content, I'm exploring the idea of a simple (100% FREE) site where boaters could upload the trips they've already done — day-by-day stops, distances, anchorages, tide notes, kid-friendly spots, what they'd do differently — so the rest of us can browse them as starting points for our own plans. Think "AllTrails, but for Salish Sea cruises," with filters like days available, boat size, crew, season, customs-or-not.

Before I build anything, I'd love a quick gut check from this community:

1. Where do you go today to plan a multi-day cruise you haven't done before?
2. Would you upload one of your past trips if it took ~10 minutes and helped another boater?
3. What would make it actually useful vs. the blogs and guidebooks you already use?
4. Anything like this already exist that I've missed?

Honest reactions welcome — including "this is dumb because…". I'll share what I learn back to the thread.

Also recognize this needs to be REAL simple on the end user so the intake is painless and time efficient.

I'm a huge fan of the content that Martin and others produce for consumption and thinking 'If I could download that trip and then tweak it to my specific needs...that would be really cool'.

Thanks in advance...!

 

[gswearin]

Yes! I'm constantly searching for itineraries, particularly in Canada. To your questions:
1. Google other people's itineraries (there are few), look at the map, then the guidebooks, then NWCRUISING.NET for distances (which I am in constant fear will go away one of these days).
2. Yes, I would. I don't keep good notes so this would help me document.
3. The itinerary and order of places to go to that would set this apart from the guidebooks (I use three main sources and they are great for checking out a particular location, but not great for deciding which ones to visit).

 

[Submariner]

I'd rather just wing it. Keeps the voyage interesting. 😀

 

[BOSCBIJI]

I'd rather just wing it. Keeps the voyage interesting. 😀

You’re the GOAT!

 

[SKing]

When first venturing out long distances and first season, I needed those ideas. But after a few trips I agree with Submariner. Now we have a lot of info in our heads and how we feel and weather dictates the day.

 

[venajeff]

I would hate to see all the effort that some people have put into their guide books not be rewarded.

 

[Submariner]

You’re the GOAT!

I found there to be a ton of info out there, all at 7-10 knots. I cruise at 25 knots. This is the difference between being able to do 40-60 miles in a day vs 90-200 miles in a day. But to do that kind of distance, I need flat water. I look at the weather the day before. That forecast dictates when we're leaving, or if we're leaving.

Wind speed matters for direction (to compare against the direction of the tide).
Wind gusts matters for wave height (for intercostal cruising)

As a result, we may be getting up at 4am for a 5:00am departure to catch some flat water and get to our destination before the wind kicks up later in the day.

I like to sleep in as well, but not at the expense of sacrificing flat as glass water for a gorgeous run.

Frederick Sound, approaching Stephens Passage. (between Petersburg and Juneau, AK).

 

[Christian Sommer]

Howdy Folks —

As I start to line up some post retirement 'keep myself busy' content, I'm exploring the idea of a simple (100% FREE) site where boaters could upload the trips they've already done — day-by-day stops, distances, anchorages, tide notes, kid-friendly spots, what they'd do differently — so the rest of us can browse them as starting points for our own plans. Think "AllTrails, but for Salish Sea cruises," with filters like days available, boat size, crew, season, customs-or-not.

Before I build anything, I'd love a quick gut check from this community:

1. Where do you go today to plan a multi-day cruise you haven't done before?
2. Would you upload one of your past trips if it took ~10 minutes and helped another boater?
3. What would make it actually useful vs. the blogs and guidebooks you already use?
4. Anything like this already exist that I've missed?

Honest reactions welcome — including "this is dumb because…". I'll share what I learn back to the thread.

Also recognize this needs to be REAL simple on the end user so the intake is painless and time efficient.

I'm a huge fan of the content that Martin and others produce for consumption and thinking 'If I could download that trip and then tweak it to my specific needs...that would be really cool'.

Thanks in advance...!

Love this idea! I hope we'll all get to see it come to fruition, it sounds like it would be a great resource!

 

[cominonslow]

Howdy Folks —

As I start to line up some post retirement 'keep myself busy' content, I'm exploring the idea of a simple (100% FREE) site where boaters could upload the trips they've already done — day-by-day stops, distances, anchorages, tide notes, kid-friendly spots, what they'd do differently — so the rest of us can browse them as starting points for our own plans. Think "AllTrails, but for Salish Sea cruises," with filters like days available, boat size, crew, season, customs-or-not.

Before I build anything, I'd love a quick gut check from this community:

1. Where do you go today to plan a multi-day cruise you haven't done before?
2. Would you upload one of your past trips if it took ~10 minutes and helped another boater?
3. What would make it actually useful vs. the blogs and guidebooks you already use?
4. Anything like this already exist that I've missed?

Honest reactions welcome — including "this is dumb because…". I'll share what I learn back to the thread.

Also recognize this needs to be REAL simple on the end user so the intake is painless and time efficient.

I'm a huge fan of the content that Martin and others produce for consumption and thinking 'If I could download that trip and then tweak it to my specific needs...that would be really cool'.

Thanks in advance...!

This sounds similar to SeaPeople (https://seapeopleapp.com/features). I haven't used this app but seems to have a similar feature set, although it does have a pay tier - unsure what you get with free vs pay.

 

[capnmorgan]

Our approach is to keep a running list of "cruising destinations" in a Google Doc that includes places we've been and places we'd like to go with any interesting details (e.g. Bamfield has boat-delivered pizza for anchored vessels) we learn from our trips, YouTube, Waggoners, or fellow cruisers. I've also started writing trip reports and sharing summaries here.

When it's time to plan one of the long cruises (1+ weeks) for the year, we start with that doc, the Waggoners Guide, and Navionics and work on an itinerary. We're still in the "fixed time windows" phase of life with work and kids activities, and have to make it all the way back down to Olympia at the end, so we can't be as spontaneous as some folks (although we always have plan B and plan C for weather) so having a pretty solid plan is a fact of life for us right now. Looking forward to the days when we can go out for a month and just see where we end up.

I'd be happy to log my trips, but it would be way cooler if it somehow was able to sync with the tracks on my Garmin and then let me annotate them vs the SeaPeople approach of killing my phone battery. Of course Garmin probably isn't interested in that sort of integration. Even cooler would be capturing real time weather/tide/current data for the location I was at and being able to correlate that with the experience we had on the boat for being able to make better choices. I'm getting pretty good at that in the South Sound, but it would be nice to have more data in less familiar waters as we explore further north (and eventually west).

 

[scross]

2026 Our Journey Planned Cruising Destinations. Three trips with 38 nights on water and 4 nights on land. This is a somewhat typical cruising season for us. Not doing Desolation Sound this year - heading for a late August cruise to the Broughtons instead. If anyone is interested in our specific cruise schedules send me a PM.

• Victoria Causeway Marina
• Todd Inlet anchorage
• Newcastle Provincial Park
• Cowichan Public Wharf
• Princess Louisa Inlet
• Fisherman’s Wharf @ False Creek
• Garrison Bay @ English Camp
• Ganges Marina
• John Henry’s Marina
• Sullivan Bay Marina
• Lagoon Cove Marina
• Sucia State Marine Park
• Telegraph Harbor Marina
• Telegraph Cove Marina
• Montague Provincial Marine Park
• Squalicum Marina @ Bellingham
• Prevost Harbor @ Stuart Island
• North Island Marina @ Port McNeill
• Jones Island State Marine Park **
• Egmont Marina (new to us)
• Goat Island anchorage
• Turnbull Cove anchorage (new to us)
• Cullen Harbor (new to us)
• Favorites like Roche Harbor, Sydney and Secret Cove as weather and schedule adjustments allow.

 

[BOSCBIJI]

2026 Our Journey Planned Cruising Destinations. Three trips with 38 nights on water and 4 nights on land. This is a somewhat typical cruising season for us. Not doing Desolation Sound this year - heading for a late August cruise to the Broughtons instead. If anyone is interested in our specific cruise schedules send me a PM.

• Victoria Causeway Marina
• Todd Inlet anchorage
• Newcastle Provincial Park
• Cowichan Public Wharf
• Princess Louisa Inlet
• Fisherman’s Wharf @ False Creek
• Garrison Bay @ English Camp
• Ganges Marina
• John Henry’s Marina
• Sullivan Bay Marina
• Lagoon Cove Marina
• Sucia State Marine Park
• Telegraph Harbor Marina
• Telegraph Cove Marina
• Montague Provincial Marine Park
• Squalicum Marina @ Bellingham
• Prevost Harbor @ Stuart Island
• North Island Marina @ Port McNeill
• Jones Island State Marine Park **
• Egmont Marina (new to us)
• Goat Island anchorage
• Turnbull Cove anchorage (new to us)
• Cullen Harbor (new to us)
• Favorites like Roche Harbor, Sydney and Secret Cove as weather and schedule adjustments allow.

Its interesting. I put these destinations as just a cut and paste and asked gemini (Google's AI) to plan a trip using our boat (gemini already knows what the details)...

and it laid out a step by step itinerary with maps, alternative moorages, fuel stops, customs stops...contact points at marinas, etc.

So maybe sharing itineraries are useful like this; a list of destinations.

 

[scross]

Its interesting. I put these destinations as just a cut and paste and asked gemini (Google's AI) to plan a trip using our boat (gemini already knows what the details)...

and it laid out a step by step itinerary with maps, alternative moorages, fuel stops, customs stops...contact points at marinas, etc.

So maybe sharing itineraries are useful like this; a list of destinations.

Wow, very cool! Gemini AI was actually pretty close to our planned cruises. Told it two trips started and ended at Bellingham and one trip started and ended at Port McNeill. I may change our Broughton plan to follow Gemini’s recommendations. Overall, very impressive! I think using Gemini AI has great promise for planning cruises!

 

[Jesperjo]

IMHO, a tool to help people plan would be really valuable, especially for beginners. If you’ve never been to some particular destination, the ability to put together an itinerary is a little daunting. Yes, it has to be tailorable to your needs, like how fast do you want to go, how many hours in a day do you want to go, but it also would be amazing to have the ability to say “Ok, I know I said I was going to Prevost today, but the weather is super snotty. Where else could I go today that would be a more comfortable trip?”

AI can certainly help with that, but it also tends to hallucinate in very strange and unexpected ways still. I used it to plan our Desolation trip for August, but then I used it today to check something online and it completely hallucinated a response that I fortunately was able to tell was completely wrong. AI is valuable but it needs help. That’s why I wonder if doing this as a skill in Gemini (or whatever tool you decide to use) isn’t the best option? If there is static behavior, like a list of marinas, VHF hailing channels, how to book, and so on, that would be good to just feed into an MCP server the skill can call. That’s where I think the guidebooks need to be going: enable use of them over MCP, and have a skill to write a personalized skill to do trip planning.