Route Explorer goal is to give to the boater (easily accessible) all the info needed for a smooth and safe navigation. Using the Route Explorer you will know all the important elements that are along the route/track you are navigating with their distances and ETAs. An excellent explanation was made by Bob423 (many thanks to Robert Sherer) in "this article".
NOTE: It is necessary to have an active Master subscription to have access to the Route Explorer info.
Draw a new route or select one of your existing routes/tracks and the Route Explorer will automatically calculates:
- All the alerts and hazards (Waterway Guide/ActiveCaptain) along your route/track.
- All the bridges and locks intersecting your route/track, calculating which one is potentially dangerous for your boat.
- All the anchorages (ActiveCaptain and WaterwayGuide) along your route/track.
- All the fuel stations (ActiveCaptain and Waterway Guide), having the selected fuel type, along your route/track (highlighting the price when available) and showing the less expensive one.
- All the marinas (ActiveCaptain and WaterwayGuide) along your route/track.
- The Weather forecast along your route/track.
NOTE: the Route Explorer calculation is based on the settings done in the My boat page. So for dangerous bridges it is used the beam and height of the boat and for the marina with fuel it is used the Fuel type option.
Info page
Accessing the route or track details page you will see a dedicated row with a summary of the hazards/alerts, bridges/locks and fuel stations (having the fuel you selected in the My Boat page) found.
Then (tapping on the button) you will be able to access a detailed list with all the important info along your route/track.
Each row shows: an icon identifying the type of object, the ETA (Estimated Time Arrival), the distance from your GPS position and a brief description. In the above image you can also see the Marina with the lowest fuel price (orange background).
If the route/track is not active (you are not navigating it) and you are not enabling the "Set start in the next 24h" then the distance is from the starting point and instead of the ETA you have the elapsed time from the starting point.
Tap on the button to access the object details. Tap on the description to close the page and center the map on the selected object.
Preferences panel
At the top of the list there is the "Preferences" panel that allows to configure the Route Explorer info. In particular, the first part of the panel, it allows to select which objects are to be considered by the Route Explorer calculation.
NOTE: this will reflect also in the items displayed during the navigation into the Route Explorer box.
Then there is a row that is present only if you are seeing a track detail and the track is not active (you are not navigating or recording it) and it allows to select which speed to use for the Time calculation.
The following row allows to select a simulated Start time for the route/track. It is available only in case the route/track is not active.
Setting the start time will also enable the display of the Weather forecast info.
Highlighted objects
You can highlight the objects in the Route Explorer list by swiping on the left on the corresponding row and selecting the "Highlight" button.
Swiping again on the cell you can remove the highlight.
Highlighting an object (or more objects) will cause to have a new info box (see below paragraph "Info boxes") overlaid to the map. In this new info box you will see the next highlighted object. This will allow to select some special elements (a bridge, a danger, a marina, ...) and to be kept informed to their distance and ETA.
NOTE: for tracks you cannot highlight the waypoints (because are not real waypoint but simulated ones).
Set starting point
NOTE: available only on iOS
For route and track than are not active, swiping on waypoints you can set them as new "simulated" starting point.
Swiping again on the cell you can reset it.
When setting a new starting point will cause to have all the calculated info (distances, fuel consumptions, ...) referred to the new starting point and not to the complete track/route.
Info boxes
While navigating a route/track, in addition to the typical info box displaying the active route/track info (see Route page), you will see:
- one box (named Highlighted object) showing the next highlighted object (with relative distance and ETA) along the route/track you are navigating.
- one box (named Route Explorer info) showing the next hazard/alert, marina and bridge/lock (with relative distance and ETA) along that route/track you are navigating.
On a tablet screen you will see all boxes (standard box on the left, highlighted object on the center and Route Explorer info on the right).
On smaller screens you will see one box at a time, displayed alternatively by the app. You can decide whether to let them looping or fix one of them on the screen using the button.
Settings page
You can reach this page from the main Settings page.
Here you can enable the overlay of the special Route Explorer boxes on the map (while navigating a route/track) using the "Show info during navigation" switch.
You can also select the max distances for the main objects:
- The max distance for searching Hazards and Alert.
- The max distance for searching Anchorages.
- The max distance for searching Marinas with Fuel.
- The max distance for searching Marinas without Fuel.