step 2 - need a good cruising guide for texas

[tradrockrat]

Hi all - long time lurker, rarely post...er...?

For those that have great memories, I joined up in the spring as my wife, two friends, and I started our 5 year plan. We bought a MacGregor 25 cheap, fixed her up, and spent the summer sailing the local lakes here in the Austin Area (consensus - Lake Buchanon is the favorite).

So far, the cruising kitty is growing on schedule, my rust has gotten knocked off my seamanship skills, and the other three are all comfortable with their hand on the tiller and are finally relaxing enough to put her over far enough to spill their boat drinks... (CUPHOLDERS!)

So for phase two, were going to add the important open water stuff (already have a very nice Garmin GPS chart depth everything ) like quality VHF / antenna (as opposed to handheld "lake" radio) radar reflector, etc. so we can spend a little time in salt water (ICW and gulf).

So we're gonna need good chart access beyond the Garmin and a good guide to cruising Texas / gulf to read over and plan with while we get ready to also take some ASA classes next year.

So chime in - What cruising guide would you buy for cruising Texas and the gulf (No, we're not really going to cruise all over the gulf in a drop keel Mac - strictly costal)?

THANKS

[lindamomsis]

Waterway Guide Southern region has about 100 pages for cruising Texas coastal areas...good information on marinas and a section called "Goin' Ashore" too; you can plan ahead for different events along the way.