On Map the yacht is drawn as a single pin at its last known position. The tip of the pin sits on the exact coordinates that were last received.
Click the pin and a small panel opens above it. It shows only the details that the vessel has actually transmitted, so a quiet vessel shows fewer lines than a busy one.
The lines in the panel
- The vessel's name — the ship name carried in the AIS broadcast. This is the name the transponder is programmed with, which is not always the name the yacht is filed under in Nauticare.
- Last update — the date and time of the most recent transmission the app has stored for this vessel. This is the single most useful line on the panel: it tells you how much to trust the position. A pin whose last update is two days old is showing you where the yacht was two days ago, not where it is now.
- MMSI — the nine-digit identity being tracked. Worth a glance if the position looks wrong: it should match the MMSI on the yacht's own Vessel Settings → General tab.
- Status — the navigational status the vessel is broadcasting, in plain words such as Under way using engine, At anchor, Moored or Aground. The status is set on board by whoever operates the AIS unit, so a yacht that is alongside but still broadcasting Under way using engine simply has not been switched over.
- Previous destination — the destination the vessel was reporting before the current one.
- Arrival — the destination the vessel is currently reporting, followed by the estimated time of arrival when one is broadcast. Both are free text typed into the AIS unit on board, so spelling, abbreviations and blanks are whatever the crew entered.
- Speed — the speed over ground from the last transmission, in knots.
The panel closes with the small cross in its corner. Clicking the pin a second time hides the track that opened with it.
Moving around the chart
The chart opens centred on the vessel. Scroll to zoom and drag to pan, as on any web map. From a moderate zoom level upwards a second layer of sea marks — buoys, beacons and similar — is drawn over the base chart, which makes it easier to see where the yacht is sitting relative to a harbour entrance or a channel.
The chart is a general-purpose sea chart supplied by open mapping projects, credited in the corner of the map. It is there to give context to a position; it is not an official navigational chart and must not be used for navigation.