About the Authors

Mark and Diana Doyle are authors of the popular cruising guide and electronic charting series, Managing the Waterway. They are also Electronics Editors for Mad Mariner and have written numerous articles for professional and boating publications, including Power Cruising, Sea Magazine, and Latitudes & Attitudes.

Mark retired from high-tech, specializing in color digital imaging with companies such as Kodak, Agfa, and Xerox. He is the founder of Bluewater Yacht Deliveries and holds a 100-ton USCG Master’s License. His first roundtrip of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway was in 1987.

Diana is a former university professor with a Ph.D. from Yale. She holds a 50-ton USCG Master’s License. A lifetime birder and naturalist, she now enjoys sharing her knowledge with cruisers though her writing.

They live with their son, Morgan, juggling time between water and land—surveying future cruising guides, leading seminars, boat show-hopping—and, occasionally, hunkering down in the frigid North to write articles, books, and guides.

About semi-local publications

We publish cruising guides, reference books, and electronic chart catalogs that help boaters follow their dreams to new destinations. The name semi-local comes from a sailboat often seen along the Intracoastal Waterway back in the 1980s. Its name was proudly displayed on the transom with electrical-tape letters as the owner sailed with the seasons, playing guitar in Tiki bars to feed the cruising kitty. With a transient lifestyle, he quipped his status fell somewhere between “local” and “tourist.” He moved too much to ever acquire local status, but stayed long enough to avoid being labeled a tourist. Thus, his stature in each adopted community was that of a “semi-local,” which, he was quick to remind everyone, sounded a lot more respectable than “semi-transient.”

As you travel you’ll never be a local, but we hope our guides help you feel like a semi-local, comfortable and familiar with the local geography, resources, culture, nature, and history of each region you visit.

About Managing the Waterway

While brainstorming the content and layout of our first guide, we realized the solution to a successful migration was simple—either you manage the Waterway or the Waterway manages you. Having the resources to plan ahead makes the difference between the stressful uncertainty of day-to-day challenges or your vessel becoming a magic carpet ride to enjoy the local sights, sounds, and experiences.

But it’s not enough to have boatloads of information—by their nature, all cruising guides include too much data. What matters most is how the information is organized and presented. And that the information is presented concisely and consistently. You want details when you have time to access them—but if you’re overwhelmed at the helm, you need to quickly glean the high-level essentials.

To help you accomplish this goal of a safe, yet relaxed and enjoyable cruise, we strive to provide the information you need, where and when you need it. Our mission is to do the organizational work for you, preparing your resources in a way that lets you be in control and manage your dream.