Years ago I put an ad out for a partnership interest in my plane, a high performance Cessna 210 (6 passenger, 200 mph, retractable gear). I’d had partners the entire time I’d owned it, over 30 years, but they had faded away due to age or other reasons. Planes are expensive to maintain in a meticulous manner, which I insist on after being a college flight instructor.
A nice guy answered my ad. He was from Boston, had a solid flying record, and wanted a 210 for his winter home in Naples. I fly to the Bahamas frequently, a dream of his, so we became friends and started to meet. The sign at my office across from the airport has the name of our marine & environmental services firm and also “Island Map Publishing” which produces wall maps of islands like the Bahamas! We also make maps of the American coast with editions from Maine to Texas including the Great Lakes and custom maps like New Zealand.
The partnership never came to be since he wanted a plane up on Cape Cod in the summer, but we remained friendly and he offered to edit our new Cape Cod map. We always involve a local in the maps we design since you really need someone who lives there to get the names and geographical features right. It’s not as easy as it sounds and why I always visit the area where a map is being made. The guy from Boston had grown up in Cape Cod with years of boating around Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard and Buzzards Bay. He did a meticulous job on the Cape Cod map and we’re proud to feature it at the upcoming Annapolis Boat Show, come see us at the Island Map Store booth if you go to the show!
Not planning on attending the show? Check out website or call today (239-963-3497) to learn more!
I've been lucky to have visited Cuba a number of times and traveled the coast visiting old towns and marinas that "once were". My purpose was to prepare boating facilities for a Cuba free of restrictions on US vessels, which will flock to Cuba by the 10s of thousands when it opens. Currently there are no marinas left on vast stretches of coastline, nowhere to moor overnight, nowhere to get fuel. I authored a report 20 years ago "Marina Preparedness for a Post-Embargo Cuba" that spelled out what was needed when it looked like the Embargo would end. I'm no longer optimistic, but Cuba is a safe place to visit and is full of friendly people. Our Cuba map was proofed by Cubans on the island itself, which means the Government saw it too. We're proud of how it turned out!
For more information on Island Map Publishing, please visit our site islandmapstore.com or call us for a custom order 239-963-3497. 
I've always enjoyed Jamaica since working there in the late 1980s and 90s. When Hurricane Gilbert mashed up the island in 1988 I went down to help my client, the Rose Hall Plantation resort in Montego Bay, recover after their beach was badly damaged. In recent years I've consulted for the Royal Jamaican Yacht Club in Kingston, the Montego Bay Yacht Club and other properties around the island.
The map of Jamaica our company "Island Map Publishing" completed a few years ago was proofed by friends on the island who have life-long experience with the nation. Good Jamaican friends of mine own Kanopy House in Jamaica and Kamalame Cay in the Bahamas - they checked the map as well and we're proud of how it turned out. Please enjoy what we believe is one of the most attractive displays of the island ever made!
To see more of our maps, books, and other products check out our site or call our warehouse today, 239-963-3497. 
The new maps are used in our book to describe the history of those individual areas, how they were settled, when the railroad came through, unique features and stories about that particular stretch of the Keys along A1A. They're also used to compare with the first detailed Keys maps, produced by the U.S. Coast Survey in the mid/late 1800s. The Keys were virgin then and the Coast Survey work is displayed next to our 10 modern era maps at the same scale. The comparison shows how the islands were altered by causeways and bridges built for the railroad and by the later development of dredge and fill waterfront subdivisions. The changes are dramatic. Additional detail can be seen in development area overlays used in the next chapter, clear overlays on top of 1959 aerials that show how land emerged from the swamp and sea. These are at a scale where Individual lots can be picked out if you or a friend lives in the area. The images are astounding.
To check out all of our maps
Long Island has to be the "longest" true island on the eastern seaboard of the U.S. I'm from Florida, so here are some comparisons: Long Island would stretch from Key West to the Ocean Reef Club on Key Largo about 115 miles away, the same appx distance as Long Island is from east to west Long Island would thereby cover the largest coral reef in America. It'd span over a million alligators in the Everglades between Miami and Naples, where I live on the Gulf of Mexico. Running east from Miami the island would span the Gulfstream and extend 60 miles beyond Bimini on the Great Bahama Bank.
By far New York's largest, the island runs the width of Connecticut with Long Island Sound separating the two states. The Island is as diverse as it is long, from Brooklyn's busy scene at the west end, affluence of the north shore and Hamptons, Fire Island National Seashore, the boardwalk at Jones Beach on the south shore and the relative calm of Montauk. People of almost every nationality on earth live and work on Long Island, the sum of wealth and property exceeding that of some countries.
My experience on the island is limited to a few frantic drives on business, a beautiful run out to Montauk Point Lighthouse and a crazy bachelor party on Fire Island. Since we always have our new maps checked for local knowledge, I turned to a biologist in our office who grew up on Long Island sailing the Great South Bay along the south shore with her father and mother. She checked the proper names of towns and geographic features since we don't copy other maps to make ours, we study things that make our display of the land and sea unique.
If you'd like to see our map of the island or other maps along the east coast, have a look at Island Map Publishing's web site or stop by our booth at the Annapolis boat show the weekend of Oct 8th. 
The Outer Banks is arguably the most famous string of barrier islands in the United States. The archipelago runs from south of the Chesapeake Bay and Virginia City to Cape Lookout near Beaufort, North Carolina. The Outer Banks also have one of the most impressive group of Lighthouses in America with light-stations at Currituck Beach, Roanoke Island, Bodie Island, Cape Hatteras and Cape Lookout.
The area has been popularized recently by the hit television show "Outer Banks", which tracks the path of a wayward group of teenagers who find a large stash of gold coins and are in-turn pursued by evil adults who want it for themselves. It's a favorite of my wife's 19 yr old son, of course, and of ours too. We have a friend who organizes the water scenes for the show, so we get some unique insight. He also did the water scenes for the movie "Titanic", so the series "Outer Banks" is in good hands.
As a kid, I remember vacationing near Kitty Hawk where the Wright Brothers first flew in 1903. That world-changing event stuck into my young mind and I eventually became a pilot myself, working my way through engineering school as a flight instructor. I also recall epic fishing trips out of Hatteras and Ocracoke Inlets where friends and I caught yellowfin tuna and other gamefish offshore. Having them onshore for dinner, with a cold beer or wine, is something every American who loves to eat fish should experience! The Outer Banks also feature loads of parks & preserves, including Cape Lookout National Seashore for kayaking, paddleboarding, boating and other family activities.
For all the above reasons it was a pleasure making a map of the Outer Banks to display on the walls of kids looking to explore and grown-ups who experienced and will never forget memories of these wonderful islands like I do. The Outer Banks Map and others will be on display at the upcoming Annapolis Boat Show in October. 
With every map we make at Island Map Publishing, I physically go to the area being drawn to meet with locals introduced through a network of yacht captains I know. They usually enjoy reviewing our map drafts and I always deliver a nice canvas copy to them when the project is complete. Experienced boaters familiar with local waters can point out things that will enhance a map and often catch errors or omissions. Marina managers will help as do locals around the docks who like to comment. You always want the map to pass local muster, which isn't as easy. We also have a marina client in Naples who's family is from Maine where they still maintain a summer home on Penobscot Bay.
When we started our two maps of Maine, I knew I'd have spend a week or two there to have a clue since my last trip was on a bike ride around Bar Harbor as a teenager. One of our maps covers the whole state of Maine and the other enlarges Penobscot Bay.
My trip started in Boston with a first night in Portland, Maine where I visited a new marina on the harbor and ate some fabulous seafood. After meeting with a captain there, I drove up the coast in a bee-line for the Canadian border so I could work my way back south. Driving around the countryside of Maine is a blast and the little towns around hundreds of bays and islands are wonderful. The weather was lovely compared to Florida in late summer I could have stayed until Christmas (guys at a craft brewery in Bath insisted they would come to Naples for Christmas and use my boat if I would please stay there).
Our maps of Maine came out great and if you happen to be at the Annapolis Boat show in October, they'll be on display in Amanda's popular Island Map booth. Come see us! 
I often give talks on history using antique maps as props. The maps are usually from my collection or from friends who are true map experts. We love the incredible stories ancient maps tell us and they've been used to help write "coffee-table" books on Naples (my home), the Bahamas (our boat's home) and the Florida Keys.
Our little company "Island Map Publishing" has produced antique style, waterfront maps from Maine to Texas including all of the Caribbean. We've finished the Great Lakes and New Zealand and are now completing California to Washington state, destined to finish the entire continental U.S. coastline in the future.
By "antique style" I mean maps which resemble old fashion wall editions (from the 1500s thru 1800s) which were displayed at European and American institutions and on private estates. They were used to discuss the exploration and colonization of the Americas.
Our map of 
