Improved: the Lock & Bridge Planner goes live, and your dates get their own page

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Improved: the Lock & Bridge Planner goes live, and your dates get their own page

The Lock & Bridge Planner now follows your boat while it's open, plans nights where you'd want to stop, and tells you about fuel. And Plan Around Your Dates is a page of its own: your season on one calendar.

Whole run locks & bridges, Alton Marina to Nashville Riverfront: 5 locks over 6 days, Fri Oct 2 to Wed Oct 7, the days as bands with day 1 selected, the boat ringed green at the start, the steps down at Mel Price and Chain of Rocks, up at Olmsted, Barkley (marked † for a tow queue) and Cheatham, numbered pins 1 to 5 for the nights, 394 nm. — Alton to Nashville: every lock on one line, the days as bands, the nights as pins, the boat at the start.

Live while you're under way

Day 1's map from Alton toward Sainte Genevieve: the boat marker ringed green at Alton with its card — Your boat, live · just now — the day's line down the Mississippi past St. Louis with its anchorages, and the map key. — Your boat on the day's map, live.

Open the planner under way and it plans from where the boat is, refreshes every five minutes while the page is open, and says what changed since you looked. Your boat shows on every map and on the lock picture — "live · 2 min ago", or "last fix 3 h ago" — on by default; "Show my boat" turns it off. "Use my current speed" plans at your real speed over the ground; it appears only when the app has your boat's position.

The whole run at a glance

Above the days: "Whole run map" and, new, "Whole run locks & bridges" — every lock and bridge on one line, the days as bands (tap one to open that day), the nights as numbered pins, and your boat. On a phone the picture slides sideways inside its own box. Each day's map now shows the stops along it.

Nights where you'd stop

Days 2 to 5 from Alton to Nashville on a phone. Day 2, Sat Oct 3: anchor at 67 nm to Boston Bar, 103 nm, 0 locks, about 41 gal. Day 3, Sun Oct 4, Olmsted: Boston Bar to ⛽ Paducah Transient Dock, 49 nm, 1 lock. Day 4, Mon Oct 5, Barkley: Paducah to ⛽ Lake Barkley Marina, 61 nm, 1 lock. Day 5, Tue Oct 6: Lake Barkley Marina to Clarksville Boat Club, 63 nm. Each card gives the leave and in times and the current. — Nights with fuel carry ⛽ in front of the name.

When a day ends near your next destination, the night is your next destination. Otherwise the plan prefers a marina or a wall with a fuel dock over an anchorage, and says why. On the first day, "Make … my next destination" sets that night as your next destination in one tap.

Arrive by a date

The top of the Lock & Bridge Planner for Alton to Nashville by Sun, Oct 11: By Sun, Oct 11: arrives Wed, Oct 7 — 4 days to spare. Arrive Wed, Oct 7 · 3:42 PM · 6 days · 5 nights. It's after dark (sunset 6:45 PM) — the run starts tomorrow, Fri, Oct 2, at 6:35 AM (your usual departure). Then three fuel lines: Fuel for this run ~203 gal; to the first fuel at Paducah 219 nm, You carry ~380 nm, enough; the longest run without fuel, Bumpus Marina to Clarksville Marina, 43 nm, enough. — Asked in the evening: the date, the start tomorrow, and the fuel.

"See it day by day" from Plan Around Your Dates opens the planner with your date on it: "By Sun, Oct 11: arrives Wed, Oct 7 — 4 days to spare." And asking late in the day no longer shows an empty Day 1: the run starts tomorrow, and one line says so — "It's after dark (sunset 6:45 PM) — the run starts tomorrow, Fri, Oct 2, at 6:35 AM (your usual departure)." Before sunset, with too few hours left to make a day of it, the line reads "Too little daylight left today".

Fuel, from your own boat

With your cruising speed and burn in Settings, the planner says what the run burns: "Fuel for this run: ~203 gal". With tank levels from your boat it checks your range against what's on board, keeping 20% in reserve: to the first fuel at Paducah is 219 nm, and "You carry ~380 nm — 297 gal on board (tanks 63 %) … enough". Nights with fuel carry ⛽, and the longest run without fuel is named.

Locks, honestly

Waits come from the last 7 days of each lock's records — the "usual wait" — and the card says when the lock last posted. A commercial tow queue (some run to days) is shown but marked "not applicable to pleasure boats": you're planned at about an hour, a lockage between tows. A boat tied up waiting for a lock is shown waiting, not arriving. When a wicket dam is down, the lock says so — no lockage, no lift — and warns as soon as it's back up. The river's current is counted in the hours, and bridges are judged at your lowered air draft.

Plan Around Your Dates, its own page

Plan Around Your Dates on a phone, Your season: Nashville Riverfront / Metro Wharf (Public Dock) by Sun, Oct 11. Green boxes Fri Oct 2 day 1, Sat 3 day 2, Sun 4 day 3, Mon 5 day 4, Tue 6 day 5, Wed 7 arrive; dashed boxes Thu 8, Fri 9, Sat 10 spare; Sun 11 be there. Under them: Leave Fri, Oct 2, arrive Wed, Oct 7 — 4 days to spare. Latest you can leave and keep your usual rest days: Sun, Oct 4. — One box a day: under way, spare, be there.

Tools → Plan Around Your Dates. The dates you can't move — be somewhere by a date, time away from the boat, a start date — on one calendar, one box per day: "day 1" … "arrive", "spare", "⚑ be there". Under each, one sentence: "Leave Fri, Oct 2, arrive Wed, Oct 7 — 4 days to spare. Latest you can leave and keep your usual rest days: Sun, Oct 4." A date more than six weeks out gets one box a week, from its Monday. Add, change or remove dates right there; My Trip's Dates card links to it.