Big Coast books trips from the captain's own calendar, with room to breathe

A charter captain lives by a calendar. There is the boat, but there is also the rest of life. Maybe a part for the motor needs picking up in Courtenay. Maybe there is a ferry to catch. If a guest books a trip on top of one of those, someone has a bad day.

That was the problem we set out to fix for Big Coast Marine Adventures.

Who Big Coast is

Big Coast Marine Adventures is a real charter business on Denman Island, BC. Captain Pat runs private fishing charters and sightseeing tours in the Northern Gulf Islands. Big Coast is a client of ours. Guests book trips on its site today.

This is not a made-up demo. It is a working site for a working boat.

The site reads the captain's calendar

When a guest picks a date on the Big Coast booking page, the site checks the captain's own Google calendar. It does not keep a second list that can drift out of date. The calendar is the one source.

Guests also pick a time of day: early morning, morning, midday or afternoon. The site knows how long a trip runs. So it checks the whole stretch of the day that trip would use, not just the start.

If that part of the day is busy, the guest sees a short note. The site then shows nearby dates that are open, so the guest can tap one. If they need that exact day, there is a phone number to call the captain.

A few more plain rules sit on top:

• No same-day bookings. A guest cannot book a trip for today. The captain needs time to plan.
• Weather days are easy. Block the day on the calendar, and the site stops offering it.
• If the calendar can't be checked at checkout, the booking stops. The guest is told, and their card is not charged.

The two-hour gap

In July 2026, Pat asked for one more rule. He did not want a trip to end right as something else began. Or start right as something else ended. He wanted room to breathe.

So we added a gap of 2 hours around everything on his calendar. Nothing books within 2 hours of anything else.

Here is how that plays out. A morning trip runs into the afternoon. Say there is an appointment late in the day, a little too close to when that trip would end. The morning trip is no longer offered. But an early trip, done by about noon, ends well before the appointment. So the early trip stays open.

Guests never see the rule itself. They just see the times that truly work. And Pat stops getting bookings he would have to call and move.

Once a trip is booked, it goes back onto the captain's calendar. So the next guest sees the time as taken.

What you get with a Launch

Everything the Big Coast home page shows comes with a Launch of our Fishing Charter starter. That includes booking with deposits paid into your own account. The tools behind the scenes come too, and booking rules from your calendar are one of them. We set it all up with your name, your boat, and your trips.

A Launch is $2,500 CAD plus GST, paid once. You get two hours, live, with one of our people. We connect your Google or Microsoft calendar. We add your trips and your hours. Then we make one real test booking with you, so you see it work.

Want a different gap than Pat's? Or no gap at all? You can change that yourself. After Launch, you tell your site what you want in plain English, like a text message. Type "leave three hours between trips" or "stop taking bookings in December." On the call, you make one real change this way, with us beside you.

Your site runs in your own Replit account. We charge $0 a month, and your host bills about $20 US a month for use. That is the host's bill, in US dollars. Our prices are in Canadian dollars. You own the code. You can leave any time with a full copy.

Next step

See what comes with the Fishing Charter starter, or start your Launch. Not sure your calendar is ready for this? Book a free 20-minute call and tell us how you plan your season.