It's been a busy winter here at Wild Coast Publishing, as we're finally ready to roll out the new Inside Passage Chart Assistant series. It is essentially an unbroken, uniformly scaled overview of the Inside Passage through British Columbia, from Washington State to (eventually) Alaska.
For the moment, the 2022 release is 11 mapsheets from the south end of the British Columbia coast to Smith Sound. They differ from the Deck Topper series (the 200-series mapsheets) by being exactly twice the scale: 121,070:1. This allows them to cover a much greater geography, and so reduces the number of mapsheets needed by a factor of four.
Essentially the series is designed for mariners traveling extensively along the coast who are likely using advanced electronics for navigation and who no longer require the numerous print charts otherwise necessary. The Inside Passage series is designed to provide the necessary visual overview for planning and logistics that electronic equipment just can't offer. It also augments the shoreline and marine details with land elements that Hydrographic Services charts don't offer. Additionally, the mapsheets are printed on heavy waterproof synthetic stock, so will survive the worst marine conditions.
For anyone spending time at particular locations, the Inside Passage series can be augmented with the Deck Toppers, which offers considerably more detail in an expanded overview. Use the Chart Assistants to plan your journey along the coast, and use the Deck Toppers to fully enjoy and better understand the destinations your journey was designed to reach.
The 11 mapsheets in the series are sold as a package in a pseudo-booklet form. Stay tuned for details on that bundle. However, all 11 are available as individual folded maps, while three are available as double-sided full-product mapsheets. These three fill a void in the Deck Topper series by completing the coast where no Deck Toppers have yet been produced. This is in large part because the areas not otherwise covered are less traveled and/or don't lend themselves well to the Deck Topper scale. The three are #304 Texada Island, #305 Jervis Inlet and #309 Queen Charlotte Strait.
Here's how the Inside Passage series will lay out the south British Columbia coastline:
You can order the bundled series here.