Pocket Mariner – Page 6 – Marine Apps and Services

Boat Beacon and SeaNav Apple Watch App tips

Here are some tips/pointers from our initial experience of using the Apple Watch with our Boat Beacon app.

1. By default the Apple Watch shows a watch face when you raise your wrist to look at it. If you want to see your nav data on Boat Beacon you have to press the crown and select Boat Beacon. This is really annoying when you want to see your navigation information at the flick of your wrist. Fortunately there is an option in the Apple Watch app on your iPhone to ensure the Boat Beacon app (or whichever app you were using last ) stays on top – its in My Watch/General/Activate on Wrist Raise/Resume Previous Activity – make sure this is ticked.

2. You need Boat Beacon on your iPhone/iPad to be in Sailing mode (Sailing button bottom left selected) to get SOG, COG , Heading and CPA/AIS information on Boat Beacon’s watch app display. The same applies to our SeaNav Watch app which also has a Waypoints display.

3. iPhone Battery is draining much faster when SeaNav or Boat Beacon app has been run on my watch even though it is no longer being displayed on the watch and I am not running the apps on my phone/iPad.

The problem is that when you launch the SeaNav or Boat Beacon watch app (or in fact any app that needs gps) on your watch it stays running even when its not showing on the watch face and/or another app (e.g. the clock) is showing. As it is running it will keep asking the iPhone for gps info which will eat battery on your iPhone. The solution is to “Force stop” the SeaNav app on your Watch when you have finished using it. Here’s how to do this:-

With the SeaNav/Boat Beacon app showing on your Watch screen press and hold the side button below the Digital Crown for a few seconds. The next screen you see features buttons for Power Off, Power Reserve and Lock Device. When you see this screen press and hold the side button again until you see SeaNav disappear and be replaced by the home screen. There are more instructions for how to do a force stop here

We need a way to exit the SeaNav app on the watch more easily – either from the iPhone or more directly from within the SeaNav app running on the watch. This appears to be a mistake/oversight by Apple (a lot of folks with fitness and cycling apps are complaining to Apple about battery drain) and hopefully they will address it in a future release.

Just remember to force quit it on your Watch when you don’t need it running.

4. The wrist torch mode doesn’t work – looks like Apple won’t let the watch show a blank white screen (it worked in the simulator). We will take a look at how to get this working. For now you can use the AIS Map display to shed some light in the dark.

5. The watch screen is polarised to reduce glare and visibility is good on a bright day. Apple have got the polarisation right – just like on instrument displays on aircraft – it works fine with Polarised sunglasses. We tested with a pair of my son’s Ray-Ban Aviators and we could see the watch face fine.

Independent trials of the Pocket Mariner AIS Dual channel receiver.

With the help of a ShipPlotter user in Finland we have been able to run side by side tests of our Pocket Mariner Dual Channel AIS receiver with a mainstream commercial brand AIS receiver costing over 3 times the price. We are very pleased with the results, with the Pocket Mariner Dual Channel AIS receiver achieving almost exactly the same coverage/range/data rate of the well known commercial brand. Here are some stats comparing our Pocket Mariner AIS receiver on port 7018 (blue) and the other on port 5378 (red ) and screenshots at the same time of the coverage from the same aerial in Helsinki.

Rate of data received (bits/s)

We also found that the coverage/range for both the commercial AIS receiver and ours was significantly improved using a relatively in-expensive AIS frequency (162MHz) tuned filter and pre-amp on the aerial feed. We used and would recommend the VHF Pre-amp from Spectrum Communications (formerly known as the Garex pre-amp). They start at around £15 for the pcb built one and around £50 for a boxed version. The ship ranges in the screenshots below is approximately 150km (100Miles). The tropospheric conditions were good.

7018 Pocket Mariner Dual Channel AIS Receiver coverage snapshot

5378 Commercial AIS Receiver coverage snapshot

N.B. The buoys at the top of the screen (North) are over 350km away and most likely Synthetic Aids To Navigation being broadcast by a shore based station nearer our aerial.

If you are interested in having a Pocket Mariner Dual Channel AIS receiver please get in touch with us at . support@pocketmariner.com

Pocket Mariner live AIS Coverage

Our ship tracking network uses a global network of shore and ship-based radio stations, which receive signals from the AIS system that ships use to broadcast their positions as they travel. Our receiver stations share the ship positions with our cloud-based data server, which pushes them onwards and out to our apps and web services.

We are continuously working on increasing the coverage of our real-time AIS receiver station network. During the last three months we have added more than 100 new AIS stations across 5 continents bringing our live ship coverage to over 40,000 ships. We have supplied the AIS receiver for free for many of these sites. New volunteers are always welcome to join our AIS Network.

Here is a list of the most recent stations we have set up and a snapshot of our global coverage Q2 2019

America

Hudson Bay, NJ

Sakonnet River in Rhode Island

St Lawrence Seaway

British Columbia

Miami, Florida, US (2 new stations)

Antioch, CA.

Stockton,CA

St Bartholomew (Caribbean)

Dominian Republic.

Buenaventura, Colombia.

Lake Erie

Several stations in Uruguay

Several stations in Mexico

Europe

The whole of Norway

The whole of Denmark

The whole of Finland

Scicily, Italy

Turku, Finland

Maasbracht, Netherlands

Ijsselmeer, Nethrlands

Ust-Luga, Russia

St Petersburgh, Russia

Edinburgh, Scotland

Over 30 new stations in and around Sweden.

Eastbourne, UK

Scilly Isles, UK

Isle of Man, UK

Lowestoft, UK

Alicante, SP

Faro, Portugal

Africa

Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

Canary Islands

Dakar, Senegal

Middle East

Kuwait

Dubai

Australasia

Perth, Adelaide, Darwin, Australia

Nagoya, Osaka, Inland Seas, Japan

Singapore

Indonesia

Ho Chi Min City, Vitenam

Sihanoukville, Cambodia.

If you are interested in adding coverage for your area, please read our Cover Your Area information – we can often provide the equipment free of charge.

Nautical Apps for Apple Watch

Sailors and boating enthusiasts now have nautical apps on Apple Watch

Wales, UK – Pocket Mariner has launched Apple Watch versions of its popular nautical apps, Boat Beacon, SeaNav and Boat Watch. These apps put powerful real-time navigation and boat tracking maps on the wrists of sailors and boating enthusiasts. With the Apple Watch being splash-proof and water-resistant, it makes a great companion device for boaters when combined with the new apps by Pocket Mariner.

“Fast access to key information and tools has been our philosophy when designing the new Apple Watch versions of our nautical apps,” said Steve Bennett CEO of Pocket Mariner. “Our goal is for boaters and boating enthusiasts to be able to quickly access information directly on the watch without fumbling for their phones.”

Boat Beacon

Boat Beacon is an app that allows sailors to monitor other boat positions, receive alerts for potential collisions and share their own position via internet AIS.

Boat Beacon for Apple Watch adds a wrist view of the user’s boat position, collision alerts and a handy set of navigation and boating tools. Boat Beacon on Apple Watch has five top-level screens: A Map screen, showing the user’s boat position and those of nearby boats; a Navigation screen showing speed and course, and which offers an emergency “Man Over Board” button; a Race Timer screen; a Compass screen; and a final screen which operates as a useful mini-flashlight, with day and night modes.

SeaNav

SeaNav is Pocket Mariner’s popular marine navigation and charting app. The new Apple Watch screens in SeaNav include waypoint navigation tools, compass, AIS and collision avoidance and a race timer.

SeaNav uses the latest Digital Vector charts, providing a wealth of benefits and advantages over raster charts. The app provides details, distance and bearings of buoys, lights, bridges, depth contours, depth soundings, rocks, anchorage areas, and NOAA weather buoys. Other useful information available in SeaNav includes tides, moon and sun times and weather.

When at sea, SeaNav provides features for navigating the course. The app alerts sailors when they’ve reached each waypoint, plus provides auto-routing to the next waypoint. SeaNav also keeps sailors safe at sea by providing collision alerts.

Boat Watch

Boat Watch, a leading “ship tracking” app, allows users to follow movements of ships and vessels anywhere in the world. The app has grown increasingly popular with people visiting coastal or river ports, who have friends or family at sea, or who rely on catching a ferry or boat as part of their daily routine. Boat Watch has been enhanced with an Apple Watch map display showing boat movements in real-time.

On the Apple Watch, Boat Watch will display a list of boats they are following, and users can tap for details on the boats with a full color photograph. The map region matches the parallel maps in the Boat Watch iOS app, so that users can follow boats either locally or anywhere of interest around the world. Users can also follow a list of favorite boats, and check on their watch where they are.

Having access to this information instantly on their wrist will make it very easy and convenient for a user to see if their ferry is on schedule or where a loved one’s cruise ship currently is. Users have the option to receive alerts on their watch when their tracked boat arrives or departs port.

All of Pocket Mariner’s nautical apps with free Apple Watch support are available now for download on the App Store.

For more information, visit PocketMariner.com.

Row around Singapore Island (RASI), Mission to Seafarers and Boat Beacon AIS tracking

Pocket Mariner are very pleased to be sponsoring the Row around Singapore Island in aid of the Mission to Seafarers .

A group of 40 enthusiasts from the maritime and insurance community in Singapore have come together, to undertake a 24 hour endurance sea challenge, all in aid of the global maritime welfare charity, The Mission to Seafarers.

Mission Row Around Singapore Island (RASI), will see two teams in ocean-going rowing boats attempt the 140km journey, taking on the seas and shipping lanes (not to mention two live military firing ranges) to complete a non-stop circumnavigation of the island of Singapore. The event itself will be held during the 50th anniversary year of Singapore’s independence and will also coincide with Singapore Maritime Week on the 22nd / 23rd April, 2015.

Pocket Mariner have provided their Boat Beacon app to both teams so they can share their position and speed during the event and everyone will be able to follow their progress on our live group tracking web view service.

http://boatbeaconapp.com/portwatch/missionrasi.html. If you would like to add the view to your own web page you can use the following iFrame:-

If you are organising an event or a race and are interested in having live tracking available please contact us :- support@pocketmariner.com

Watermark Round Britain Voyage Summer 2015 and Boat Beacon AIS

Watermark is a Beneteau First 33.7 Cruiser/ Racer currently on a round Britain voyage. She is using Boat Beacon to share her position over internet AIS with friends and family on Boat Watch and our new live iframe “embed” web page that lets you add a map showing your boat’s location to other web pages (e.g. a blog). Use the following as a template, you can set the width and height to fit your page

“<iframe style=”border:none;height:600px;width:1800px;” src=”http://boatbeaconapp.com/see/MMSI?embed=1″></iframe>”

Where MMSI is your boat’s MMSI number (as set in Boat Beacon). If you don’t have an MMSI, we can provide you with an internet AIS one, or you can use your Boat Beacon identity instead starting with BB (see the bottom of My Boat Details in Boat Beacon to find your Boat Beacon id). If you don’t have blog or web site you can also give out a web link to your web page on our site – e.g. http://boatbeaconapp.com/see/MMSI

We wish Malcolm and Watermark a safe and very enjoyable circumnavigation and look forward to following their progress. Here is his current postion :-

Apple Watch – Pocket Mariner apps

We have been working hard to ensure Apple Watch versions of all our marine apps are ready for you as soon as you get your new Apple Watch. Boat Beacon, our signature app, now gives you collision alerts directly on your wrist with CPA time and distance information and a map overview. Check your next waypoint wherever you are on your boat with a compass view, cross track error (XTE), distance and ETA on our SeaNav watch app. Spot nearby boats, track your ferry or a boat of interest and get arrival and departure alerts with our Boat Watch app on Apple Watch.

SeaNav and Boat Beacon Navigation view

SeaNav Waypoint face.

Boat Beacon and SeaNav Compass view

Boat Watch, Boat Beacon and SeaNav map AIS view

As ever – ship photos to help you identify it.

And the great news ….. the watch apps are all free upgrades to our existing apps 🙂

Melbourne to Port Fairy Ocean Yacht Race

Pocket Mariner are pleased to be sponsoring the ORCV’s (The Ocean Racing Club of Victoria) Melbourne to Port Fairy Ocean Yacht Race this Easter. We are providing complimentary copies of our Boat Beacon app to all the entrants and race officials so they can track the fleet over the 135 mile race.

You can view and see the tracks for all the boats live here

http://boatbeaconapp.com/group/ORCV 2015 PORT FAIRY

We have also set up 5 Artificial Aids to Navigation for the start and finish of the race, marking Drapers Reef at the start line, ORCV Virtual Buoy, Point Lonsdale Light, Corsair Rock and Nunn buoy at the finish line.

The AtoN’s are visible in Boat Beacon and our Boat Watch apps.

You can read more about the AtoNs for the race on the ORCV web site here:-

http://www.orcv.org.au/index.php/port-fairy/4413-boat-beacon-ais-smartphone-tablet-app-aids-to-navigation

New AIS Aerial in the Caribbean on St Barts

Our latest AIS aerial on St Barthelemy in the Caribbean has just gone live. If only I could go out and test it! Thanks to Emmanuel at Jicky Marine Service

http://boatbeaconapp.com/station/7017

Our AIS aerial on top of Jicky Marine Service’s office.

Jicky Marine’s office from the other side of the Harbour

Plan of Gustavia looking from the land side out to sea (North is bottom right) showing the office location.

SeaNav now has official Canadian Marine charts

SeaNav now has official Canadian charts available provided by the Canadian Hydrographic service (CHS) covering the whole of the Canadian coast and main inland waters. Includes the Northern parts of the Great lakes, St Lawrence River and Seaway, Vancouver and lots lots more. Before now this complete set of Canadian digital marine charts would have set you back a few thousand dollars. Now you can get them all via a $29.99 ( 34.99 CAD) In App Purchase (IAP) in both our SeaNav US and SeaNav HD apps for iPhone and iPad.

Here is a map showing the chart coverage (outlines in red). You can also check the coverage in our app before you purchase . The Canadian charts will be outlined in blue and marked with CA.

Here is a screenshot of the new charts covering Vancouver – loads more detail when you zoom in 🙂