Recommended
Boating sites worth reading
The official boating sources we check ourselves, kept short on purpose. A person picks every entry and writes it up.
Official sources
Agencies, regulators and the organizations that publish the rules and the data. We use these ourselves. None of them asked to be listed and none of them link back to us.
Coast Guard Boating Safety
uscgboating.org
Required equipment, registration, accident reporting, and the free vessel safety check a volunteer examiner will run at the ramp. Also where recalls and safety alerts for boats and engines get published.
Corps Lakes Gateway
corpslakes.erdc.dren.mil
The Army Corps of Engineers runs hundreds of lakes with campgrounds, boat ramps and day use areas, and they are the most overlooked public campgrounds in the country. Facilities, water levels and closures, lake by lake.
NOAA National Data Buoy Center
ndbc.noaa.gov
Live wave height, wave period, wind and water temperature from buoys and coastal stations. These readings are what is happening right now rather than a model, which is why forecasters check them too.
NOAA Office of Coast Survey
nauticalcharts.noaa.gov
Official nautical charts, chart updates and the Coast Pilot, free to view or download. Electronic charts on a plotter go stale quietly, so it is worth confirming a passage against the current edition.
NOAA Tides and Currents
tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov
Tide predictions, live water levels and current forecasts from the national network of stations. Predictions run years ahead, so this is the one to plan a trip around rather than a weather app.
Run a site we should know about?
We read everything that comes in. Independent sites about boating only, and a person writes the description, so there is no need to send us one.
Add your siteWe link to these sites because we think they are useful. None of them paid for a place here, and nobody can buy one. If a site stops being worth reading, it comes off this page.
