Anchor AlarmUS Great Lakes charts — built for how you actually cruise
The five Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence approaches.
Popular sailing destinations
Where this region's sailors actually drop anchor.
The North Channel & Georgian Bay
Pink granite, pine, and the finest gunkholing in fresh water — the cruiser's favourite.
Lake Michigan — Door County
Bluff-lined harbours and the Midwest's sailing heartland.
Apostle Islands, Lake Superior
Sea caves and wild shorelines on the coldest, clearest lake.
The Thousand Islands
Where Lake Ontario pours into the St. Lawrence — islands by the thousand.
Mackinac Island
The car-free island at the hinge of Lakes Huron and Michigan.
Popular harbours & anchorages
A few of the spots Great Lakes sailors cruise — all charted in the pack.
- The North Channel
- Georgian Bay
- Little Current
- Mackinac Island
- Door County
- Chicago
- The Apostle Islands
- Bayfield
- The Thousand Islands
- Kingston
- Put-in-Bay
Cruising Great Lakes
The Great Lakes are freshwater cruising on an inland-sea scale: the granite gunkholes of the North Channel and Georgian Bay, the Apostle Islands' sea caves on Superior, and the Thousand Islands where Lake Ontario funnels into the St. Lawrence. The lakes make their own weather — squalls build fast over big open water — and the season is short and sweet. This region covers all five Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence approaches, on survey-grade ENC.
What’s inside the Great Lakes pack
Every layer our chart pipeline bakes for this region — yours for $14.99/year.
Nautica Day & Night charts
S-52 vector cartography styled for daylight and night watches.
Depth-aware routing
Route planning that respects your draft and the charted depths.
Seabed & holding
Charted seabed type and holding quality from S-57 substrate — know what you’re anchoring into.
Soundings & depth contours
Spot depths and contours across the whole region.
Tides & currents
Tidal heights and streams, bundled in.
Rocks, wrecks & hazards
Charted obstructions so you can plan a clean approach.
Harbours & anchorages
Marinas, harbours and anchorages along the coast.
Lights, buoys & beacons
Charted navaids with their light characteristics.
Fully offline
Download once over wifi; navigate with no signal.
Sources & accuracy
The Great Lakes pack is built from NOAA ENC + GEBCO + OSM SeaMarks, fused with community-verified rocks, wrecks and navaids. NOAA ENC · GEBCO 2025 · © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL)
- Survey-grade ENC
- 721 × 480 NM
- 1,450 MB
Charted by the United States government.
The Great Lakes pack is built from NOAA's official Electronic Navigational Charts — the federal survey data itself — fused with community-verified rocks, wrecks and navaids, then packed to work with no signal.
- NOAA ENC
- Official S-57 source
- Public domain
The source, not a copy
NOAA and USACE publish their charts as S-57 ENC cells. Our pipeline parses those cells directly, so depth areas, soundings, wrecks, rocks, channels and aids to navigation arrive as the hydrographers surveyed them — never traced off an image.
The paper chart is gone
NOAA finished cancelling its traditional paper and raster charts in January 2025. The ENC is now the only official US chart there is, which makes reading it properly the whole job rather than a bonus feature.
Public data, honest price
US government charts are public domain and carry no licence fee. That is why a US region is $14.99 a year flat — charts, depth-aware routing, tides and seabed included — instead of a chart licence billed on top of the app.
Government-charted regions
Source data: NOAA Office of Coast Survey and the US Army Corps of Engineers, in the public domain. AnchorQueen is an independent product, not affiliated with, endorsed by or certified by NOAA, USACE or any US government agency. Region packs are derived charts for situational awareness and do not replace the official charts a vessel is required to carry.
Anchoring in Great Lakes
AnchorQueen is an anchor-watch app first. Every Great Lakes chart carries seabed type and holding quality from official survey data, so you read the bottom before you drop the hook — then the anchor alarm watches your swing while you sleep.
Auto-renewing, billed securely through your App Store account — no card forms, no separate logins. Cancel anytime.
On iPhone and iPad now — Android coming soon.
Cruising the whole app? Pro includes one region; Max includes three.
Questions
Is this the northern leg of the Great Loop?
Yes — the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence approaches. Pair it with the US Inland Rivers and US East regions for the full Loop.
Do the lakes really need marine charts?
Absolutely — big-lake weather, shoals and rocky shorelines make accurate ENC charts and depth-aware routing as important as on salt water.
Does it work offline?
Yes — download once and navigate the lakes with no signal.