Routing

Set your destination, and Orca will instantly find the way. Routes in Orca are tailored to your preferences, and integrated weather forecasts prepare you for the upcoming trip. Navigation has never been easier.

Routes in brief

Find a route to your destination with a single tap
Drag and drop waypoints to add stops or tweak expand your route
Orca estimates your travel time and generates weather forecasts tailored for your specific route
The routes are tailor-made based on your preferences and take into account depths, marks, rocks, obstacles, bridges, and cables
Visual warnings are shown in case you need to pass through shallow areas or under bridges and cables
Save your routes for later use. Saved routes are synced across all devices.

Routing via the chart

To find a route from your current location, Long press at your desired location in the chart and select Navigate to.

After a short moment, a route preview will appear on the chart.

The route takes into consideration your depth and height limits to avoid shallows and bridges. While the route is based on analyzing millions of data points from official chart data, you should always check the route carefully – and you as a captain are always responsible for the safety of the route.

Route segments that pass over or near shallow areas will be marked as red, and segments that pass under bridges or cables will also be highlighted with a special marker.

Routing currently requires internet connectivity. In case you do not have internet, Orca will create a manual route. To do so, select Edit Waypoints from the route menu at the bottom of the screen.

The video below shows you how to create a route from the chart.

Routing via search and your own spots

You can also select your starting point and destination from search results and your saved Spots. To create a route from a search:

Press on Go-To in the bottom bar
Press on the field Where to
Type the name of your destination and press Enter

Orca allows you to search for marinas, cities, islands, and much more.

If you want to route from a different starting point, press Your Location and enter the name of where you want to route from.

To route to your own Spot, select it from the map or via Go-To > Saved spots and routes.

Save and edit routes

To save a route, press Save from the route preview.

You can also edit a route by adding new waypoints or changing the start and destination.

To do so, select a saved or preview a new route, and click on Edit Waypoints from the bottom menu.

To add new waypoints along the route, long-press in the map. The route will re-calculate to include your new waypoint.
To move the location of a waypoint, long-press and drag it to the desired location.
To remove a waypoint, tap on it and press Delete from the bottom menu

Orca offers automatic and manual routing.

The automatic mode is default and takes into account your boat profile to automatically find a navigable path between your waypoints. Manual mode connects the waypoints with straight lines, which means you need to define every waypoint yourself.

To disable automatic routing, press the Switch in the top right corner of the Edit Waypoint screen.

Weather along the route

This is one of the most impressive features of Orca Routing.

Orca is able to estimate your travel path, and show you a tailor-made weather forecast for your specific route.

To view the weather along the route, create a route and press on Weather from the bottom menu.

Weather information and time markers will now be shown along the route. To change the forecast type, press the buttons Overview, Waves, Tides, or Weather Radar at the top of the screen.

Departure time can be selected from the bottom of the screen.

Orca will use the departure time along with information about your boat to estimate your travel path along the route and use both time and location to generate a tailor-made weather forecast for your route.

In addition to the long-term weather forecast, the Weather Radar view gives you an animated and hyperlocal view of upcoming precipitation along your route.

This hyperlocal visualization is perfect for understanding how may the weather will evolve in the coming hours.

Route preferences

The routes calculated by Orca are tailored to your boat and to the chart data for your area.

To edit your preferences, open the Main Menu > Settings > Navigation.

These are the elements available to you for tailoring the routes:

Offshore cruising speed - Used to estimate route arrival time. Set to your average cruising speed when offshore and outside restriction zones.
Nearshore cruising speed - Used to estimate route arrival time. Set to your average cruising speed when near shore or inside restriction zones.
Routing height limit - The routing engine will prefer to avoid bridges and cables lower than this value.
Routing depth limit - The routing engine will prefer to avoid areas, rocks, and obstacles shallower than this value.
Routing leeway - Adjust how close to the shore the routing engine prefers to follow.