Who this guide is for
The guide serves three audiences: recreational skippers planning coastal passages, charter customers comparing operators, and crew members who need checklists they can actually use under time pressure.
Content is practical rather than regulatory: how things work on the water, what to check before departure, and where the published rules end and local practice begins.
Passages and routing notes
Coverage emphasises the routes this network actually sails: the south-west of Western Australia (Fremantle, Rottnest approaches), and the Central American coast including San Juan del Sur and the Gulf of Fonseca approaches.
Weather routing notes favour conservative margins: leave earlier, carry fuel for the diversion, and treat forecast windows as perishable — re-check before committing to a crossing.
Charter operations and economics
For would-be charter customers: understand what is included (fuel, park fees, crew), what is extra, and what cancellation terms really cost. For operators: the economics of a season depend on utilisation, repositioning days and maintenance windows.
A useful rule of thumb for customers: the cheapest day rate is rarely the cheapest charter once fuel, fees and weather downtime are counted.
Questions
Is Mariner's Guide a charter company?
No — it is a guidance publication. It is associated with Pelican Charters (WA) for operational context, but the guide itself publishes reference content.
How old is this site?
The domain was first registered in June 1998 — one of the oldest continuously held names in its niche.
Where does the traffic come from?
Cloudflare measured roughly 11,600 unique visitors and 133,000 requests in the 30 days to 11 October 2026 — real readers, mostly arriving from search.
Can I contribute or correct something?
Yes — use the contact form. Corrections with a source are given priority.