Guide book recommendations - Great Lakes

[JP in Sandusky]

For those of you that have been sailing the area for a while: what guides / resources / charts do you recommend?

I am particularly focused, in the next couple of years, in Lake Erie, Lake St Clair, and southern Lake Huron.

 

[Bob Robertson]

It's early for you, but when you're ready to sail Lake Superior "Bonnie Dahl's The Superior Way" is really good. She has been enhancing it over the years. I believe the 5th edition is the most current version.

 

[driftless]

Like Bob, I'm in the upper lakes, so don't have any resources for your area. Other than to recommend The Great Lakes Cruising Club. For a modest fee you get access to all of their harbor/anchorage guides, which are super-extensive. We've found very few places that are in other guides that aren't in the GLCC archive.

However, a very highly recommended book for when you get up to Northern Huron, is "Cruising the North Channel" by Kenneth McNeil Wells.
It's from 1960, so some info may be outdated, but the anchorages and rocks (mostly) don't move. It's worth it just for Wells' beautiful prosaic writing.

In Lake Michigan "Summer Sail" (1984) by John Torinus is a great guide to the Green Bay area.
And "A Gunkholer's Guide to Northern Lake Michigan" (1982) by Patrick and Judy Nerbonne is great for the northern islands.

I believe all 3 book are out of print, so you'll have to find used copies.

Until very recently, with the new 5th edition, any edition of Bonnie Dahl's book was hard to find and used copies were sometimes outrageously expensive.

 

[JP in Sandusky]

recommend The Great Lakes Cruising Club. For a modest fee you get access to all of their harbor/anchorage guides, which are super-extensive. We've found very few places that are in other guides that aren't in the GLCC archive.

I had not heard of GLCC before. I will be looking into that a bit more this weekend, for next year. Speed reading a couple of pages on the website, it looks like exactly the type of information I seek.

 

[insular]

They stopped making them, but I grabbed the last edition of the Richardsons' Chartbook + Cruising Guide for Lake Erie to have aboard. It's handy for basic information, as well as having a paper chart to look at. The Dozier waterway guides are still being updated, but I agree for the money, GLCC is probably a better bet.

 

[JP in Sandusky]

They stopped making them, but I grabbed the last edition of the Richardsons' Chartbook + Cruising Guide for Lake Erie to have aboard. It's handy for basic information, as well as having a paper chart to look at. The Dozier waterway guides are still being updated, but I agree for the money, GLCC is probably a better bet.

Looks like GLCC will be the solution. I'd like to have some material/information that can be kept on the boat, for guests and crew to also review.