Down East Loop + a new Boat Ramp facility type
Two big things this morning: the Down East Loop is now a selectable loop variant — a 2,400 NM full Maritimes circumnavigation. And we added a seventh facility type, Boat Ramp, for public ramps and trailer launches.
Down East Loop — the route
The Down East Loop is the Loop's bigger sibling: roughly 2,400 NM circumnavigating the Maritimes. You head up the Hudson, through the Champlain Canal into Lake Champlain, north up the Richelieu River to the St. Lawrence, east through Quebec and Nova Scotia, down through Cape Breton and back along the Atlantic coast to home.
18 spine segments plus four side trips — Penobscot Bay, Bras d'Or Lake, Cape Breton's Cabot Trail, and St. Pierre & Miquelon — each with verified polylines.
Switch loops without losing your trip
Use the Loop Type chip at the top of your trip details to preview the Down East Loop. Preview mode is ephemeral — no changes are saved until you click "Make Down East Loop my trip" and confirm. While you're previewing, your current Great Loop trip stays intact.
The four side trips
Each one is a meaningful detour with its own character:
- Penobscot Bay (Maine) — Castine, Camden, Rockland
- Bras d'Or Lake (Cape Breton) — a saltwater inland sea
- Cape Breton's Cabot Trail — the eastern shore of Cape Breton
- St. Pierre & Miquelon — the French islands south of Newfoundland
Read the guide
We also published a full Down East Loop article in Learn covering the route, the seasons, the Canadian customs side, and what to expect. Pull up Learn → Routes & Waterways → Down East Loop.
Boat Ramp — a new facility type
Public boat ramps now have their own facility type, separate from Dock Walls. A ramp is a different thing — you trailer in, launch, and head out. Each ramp shows the fee structure (Free / Paid / Donation), number of lanes, parking capacity, whether there are restrooms or fish-cleaning stations, and the depth at the ramp.
Boat Ramps are hidden by default on the planner map for the same reason anchorages are — they'd clutter the view for most cruisers. Tap the Legend filter to reveal them.
Smaller stuff
We also fixed a doubling bug in the cruising-distance shown on the Fuel Calculator, Trip Budget, Bridge Clearance, and Seasonal Planner pages — they now match the planner's total correctly.