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Introduction

What is FastSeas?

FastSeas is a weather routing and passage planning tool. It will calculate the fastest route to take you from point A to point B given the current NOAA GFS weather forecast, oceanic surface current forecast, the performance of your vessel, and your comfort criteria.

How Do You Use It?

Log In

Feel free to look around, but before you can actually run routing calculations, you'll need to log in. Logging in allows FastSeas to remember your polar and comfort criteria. You can log in using various social login options. I have taken this approach rather than having you register with a username and password because it's less work for me and safer for you - as I don't have to deal with passwords. There is nothing nefarious going on here. FastSeas is not going to be reading your posts or creating posts or any such thing.

Configure Your Vessel's Performance

You need to teach FastSeas about the performance of your vessel. You do that using the Vessel Performance tab. You only have to setup these performance settings once. FastSeas will save these settings and use them next time you come back. There are instructions on the Vessel Performance tab, so I won't repeat them here. The amount of data you have to enter on the Vessel Performance tab can look intimidating, but it goes pretty quickly.

Set Start & Finish Locations

Before FastSeas can calculate a route, you need to tell it where you are starting from and what your destination is. You do that using the Routing tab. On the Routing tab, you'll see a map with an "S" marker and a "F" marker. These represent your start and finish points. They can be positioned by dragging them on the map. Or if you prefer, you can enter the Lat & Long into the fields.

Get Routes

You can now run weather routing calculations by clicking the Calculate Route button on the Routing tab. After the calculation is complete, the route will be displayed on the map. You can also look at the details of the route on the Route Positions tab, and summary stats on the Passage Stats tab.

You can specify your comfort criteria on the Routing tab. You can enter the maximum wind speed in knots that you are willing to tolerate beating (forward of the beam), reaching (aft of the beam), and maximum gust conditions.

Note that you can run multiple calculations, perhaps with different departure times, comfort criteria, or destinations, and have all of these routes displayed in the same map.

Get Routing and Departure Planning Results While Offshore

You can also get routing and departure planning solutions from FastSeas via email (e.g. Iridium GO!, Sailmail, Winlink, and other email services) and via Garmin inReach and other short message satellite communicators such as Zoleo, Spot, and Bivy Stick devices. This is particularly useful when offshore or in remote anchorages - when you don't have access to high-speed internet. Results are provided by an automated email responder, which automatically calculates the route or departure planning result in response to your emailed request, and sends the result back to you in a reply email within a few seconds. Using the email responder service requires a FastSeas subscription.

Via Email (Iridium GO!, Sailmail, Winlink, etc.)

Routing Requests

To request a route using the email responder service, send an email like the one below: 

To: query@fastseas.com
Subject: Bonaire-Porlamar
SEND ROUTE: 12.0N, 68.3W, 10.9N, 63.8W

Where 12.0N,68.3W are the coordinates of your departure point (in decimal degrees) and 10.9N,63.8W are the coordinates of your destination. The subject is not consequential - you can make it whatever you like. You can also specify coordinates in degrees and minutes if you prefer as shown below: 

To: query@fastseas.com
Subject: Bonaire-Porlamar
SEND ROUTE: 12-0N, 68-18W, 10-54N, 63-48W

Where 12-0N is 12 degrees 0 minutes North, and 68-18W is 68 degrees 18 minutes West.

A few minutes after sending your email, the automated email responder will send you a reply containing a GPX file which contains your routing solution. The GPX file contains waypoint data for your optimum route. Each waypoint contains predicted weather data for that waypoint in the waypoint description field. GPX files can be imported into a variety of chart plotters and navigation software (e.g. Navionics "Boating" app, OpenCPN, iNavX, Coastal Explorer, etc.). The GPX file is typically very small (less than 5 KB) and therefore very suitable for low bandwidth HF or satellite access.

The automated email responder will only respond to requests from authorized email addresses. That includes the email address you registered with, or to any email address you setup in the Account tab - where you can authorize your Iridium GO, SailMail, Winlink, and other email addresses.

If you prefer to get a Google Earth KMZ file instead of the standard GPX response, add a KMZ switch to your request as shown below: 

To: query@fastseas.com
Subject: Bonaire-Porlamar
SEND ROUTE: 12.0N, 68.3W, 10.9N, 63.8W, KMZ

If you would like to receive a compressed GPX file (zipped), then use a GPXZIP switch instead.

If you would like to limit the number of days included in the route mailed back to you, then add a DAYS=3 switch, substituting the number of days you wish to receive: 

To: query@fastseas.com
Subject: Bonaire-Porlamar
SEND ROUTE: 12.0N, 68.3W, 10.9N, 63.8W, GPXZIP, DAYS=2

You can also receive the routing data in a table (CSV file) using the CSV switch.

The default departure time for routing request submitted via the email responder in "now." You can adjust the departure time using the optional DEPARTURE_DELAY_HOURS parameter. For example, use DEPARTURE_DELAY_HOURS=2 to set the departure time to two hours from now; or use DEPARTURE_DELAY_HOURS=24 to set the departure time to this time tomorrow (24 hours from now).

You can optionally include parameters to adjust your comfort criteria. To set the maximum wind you are willing to tolerate forward of the beam, use MAX_WIND_BEATING=20 (e.g. 20 kn). Use MAX_WIND_REACHING=30 to set the maximum wind you are willing to tolerate aft of the beam. Use MAX_WIND_GUST=50 to set the maximum wind gust you are willing to tolerate.

If you would like to disable ocean current effects in the routing calculation, add a NO_CURRENT switch to your request.

You can also optionally include parameters to adjust your polar performance and motoring criteria. To set the polar performance adjustment, use PERFORMANCE_ADJUSTMENT=90 (e.g. 90%). Use START_MOTORING=3 (e.g. 3 kn) to set the boat speed at which you will start motoring. Use MOTORING_SPEED=7 (e.g. 7 kn) to set the speed at which you motor.

Departure Planning Requests

You can also get departure planning results from FastSeas via email. To get departure planning results, send an email like the following: 

To: query@fastseas.com
Subject: Bonaire-Porlamar
SEND DEPARTURE: 12.0N, 68.3W, 10.9N, 63.8W

The reply email will contain an attached table with your departure planning data.

Via Satellite Communicator (Garmin inReach, Zoleo, Spot, Bivy Stick, etc.)

The FastSeas email responder also supports Garmin inReach and other short message satellite communicators such as Zoleo, Spot, and Bivy Stick. Messages on these devices are generally limited to 160 characters of plain text - and so this imposes some limitations on what FastSeas can send.

Garmin inReach Routing Requests

InReach devices usually automatically provide your current location in messages sent from the device, so there is no need to provide your current/start position latitude and longitude when submitting routing and departure planning requests from your inReach device. If you wish to specify a departure position different from the position automatically reported by you inReach device, then you certainly may include both departure and destination positions in your request.

When sending a request from an inReach device, you must include the EMAIL parameter, specifying the email address you registered with (see the Account tab). This is required because messages from inReach devices do not provide a reply email address.

Example routing request:

To: query@fastseas.com
SEND ROUTE: 10.9N, 63.8W, EMAIL=JEREMY@FASTSEAS.COM
Zoleo, Spot, or Bivy Stick Routing Requests

When sending a request from Zoleo, Spot, Bivy Stick, or other short message satellite communicator device, you must include the SHORT parameter, which tells FastSeas to respond using the short message format. You must also include both the start and destination latitude and longitude.

Example routing request:

To: query@fastseas.com
SEND ROUTE: 12.0N, 68.3W, 10.9N, 63.8W, SHORT

Some devices may require reply messages to be shorter than 160 characters. For example, Spot devices have a 140 character limit. You can configure different maximum reply message length using the MSGLEN parameter as shown in the example below: 

To: query@fastseas.com
SEND ROUTE: 12.0N, 68.3W, 10.9N, 63.8W, SHORT, MSGLEN=140
Example Routing Request Response

Response messages are limited to 160 characters, so FastSeas will by default send a single compact reply message - consisting of the next 4 positions along the optimum route at 6 hour intervals. For example: 

HOUR,LAT,LNG,WIND,COG
H0,11.58N,67.75W,15G18@78,126
H6,11.17N,67.16W,16G19@81,126
H12,11.04N,66.65W,10G14@110,59
H18,11.34N,66.02W,6G7@114,54,M

Where (looking at the first row of data):

Code Description
H0 Indicates the elapsed time in hours to reach the waypoint. H0 is the start point, now, at hour 0; H6 is 6 hours from now, etc.
11.58N,67.75W Latitude and longitude in decimal degrees
15G18@78 Wind 15 knots, gusting 18, from 78 degrees true
126 Course over ground (true) from this waypoint (H0) to the next waypoint (H6)
M A trailing "M" in a row of data indicates that you would be motoring

If you need more waypoints, you can send a request with the optional WAYPOINTS and INTERVAL parameters, where WAYPOINTS determines how many waypoints will be sent (default is 4 waypoints), and INTERVAL determines how many hours between each waypoint (default is 6 hours). For example: 

To: query@fastseas.com
SEND ROUTE: 10.9N, 63.8W, EMAIL=JEREMY@FASTSEAS.COM, WAYPOINTS=24, INTERVAL=4

The example request above will send 24 waypoints with 4 hour interval between each waypoint. If you request more data than can fit in a single 160 character message, then FastSeas will reply with multiple messages. The example request above will result in a chain of 6 messages being sent in reply.

Departure Planning Requests

Departure planning responses to inReach and short message devices are similarly brief. The default response will include a single day (departing today) of departure planning stats sent in a single messages. Example request: 

To: query@fastseas.com
SEND DEPARTURE: 10.9N, 63.8W, EMAIL=JEREMY@FASTSEAS.COM

Example response:

PLAN 1
DEP 16 APR 14:34Z
TIME 2d4h
MOTOR 0h
W-MIN 11
W-MAX-BEAT 19
W-MAX-REACH -
W-GUST 25
W-AVG 17
%BEAT 100
%CLS 0
%BEAM 0
%BRD 0
%RUN 0
BS-AVG 6.8

Where:

Code Description
DEP Departure date and time in UTC
TIME Passage duration, where 2d4h means 2 days and 4 hours
MOTOR Time motoring
W-MIN Minimum wind (knots)
W-MAX-BEAT Maximum wind beating (knots)
W-MAX-REACH Maximum wind reaching (knots)
W-GUST Maximum wind gust (knots)
W-AVG Average wind (knots)
%BEAT Percent of the time beating
%CLS Percent of the time close reaching
%BEAM Percent of the time beam reaching
%BRD Percent of the time broad reaching
%RUN Percent of the time running
BS-AVG Average boat speed (knots)

You can request several days of departure planning results by specifying the optional PLANS parameter in your request. The example request below requests 5 days of departure planning stats, which will result in 5 separate response messages being sent to your inReach device: 

To: query@fastseas.com
SEND DEPARTURE: 10.9N, 63.8W, EMAIL=JEREMY@FASTSEAS.COM, PLANS=5

Command Reference

Commands, Parameters, and Abbreviations Description
SEND ROUTE, SR Requests an optimum routing calculation
SEND DEPARTURE, SD Requests an departure planning calculation
KMZ Requests route as a KMZ file rather than GPX
GPXZIP Requests route as a zipped GPX file
CSV Requests route as a CSV file rather than GPX
DAYS, D Limit the size of the returned route to the specified number of days
DEPARTURE_DELAY_HOURS, DDH Delay the departure time by the specified number of hours (from "now")
MAX_WIND_BEATING, MWB Specifies the maximum wind you are willing to tolerate forward of the beam
MAX_WIND_REACHING, MWR Specifies the maximum wind you are willing to tolerate aft of the beam
MAX_WIND_GUST, MWG Specifies the maximum wind gust you are willing to tolerate
NO_CURRENT, NC Disables ocean current effects in routing calculations
PERFORMANCE_ADJUSTMENT, PERF Used to adjust the performance of the vessel from what the polar would suggest - where "100" is the nominal polar derived performance
START_MOTORING, SM Specifies the minimum boat speed below which you will start motoring
MOTORING_SPEED, MS Specifies the motoring boat speed
SHORT Used with short message satellite communicators to force the short response message format (160 character max). Required for Zoleo, Spot, Bivy Stick, etc.
MSGLEN Used with short message satellite communicators to set the desired maximum reply message length (short format only; optional; defaults to 160)
EMAIL, E Associate your inReach request with your FastSeas profile (inReach only - required for all inReach requests)
WAYPOINTS, WPT, W Specifies the number of waypoints to return (short format only; optional; defaults to 4)
INTERVAL, INT, I Specifies the number of hours between waypoints (short format only; optional; defaults to 6)
PLANS, P Specifies the number of departure plan days to return (short format only; optional; defaults to 1)
Routing
°N
Must be between -90.0 and 90.0
°E
Must be between -180.0 and 180.0
°N
Must be between -90.0 and 90.0
°E
Must be between -180.0 and 180.0
NM
kn
Must be between 0 and 99
kn
Must be between 0 and 99
kn
Must be between 0 and 99
Vessel Performance

A polar diagram is a common way of depicting vessel performance in various wind conditions. The diagram plots boat speed at various true wind angles and wind speeds. The true wind angle is indicated around the edge of the semicircle. Boat speed is then plotted at various true wind speeds - different color lines representing different true wind speeds. The boat speed is indicated as the distance from the center of the circle. Concentric circles indicate boat speed starting at zero in the center of the circle and extending out at 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 knots boat speed.

%
Must be between 50% and 150%
kn
Must be between 0 and 30
kn
Must be between 1 and 30

You can create a simple polar diagram for your vessel by providing the waterline length (LWL) and closest point of sail (this is half of what you tack through) below. Click the "Create" button and FastSeas will generate a simple polar diagram from these two data points. You can can then refine the resulting polar diagram by selecting the Edit option below.

You can create a simple polar diagram for your vessel by providing the waterline length (LWL). Click the "Create" button and FastSeas will generate a simple polar diagram from the provided LWL. You can can then refine the resulting polar diagram by selecting the Edit option below.

Must be between 1 and 999
°
Must be between 10 and 89

Edit the polar diagram for your vessel by entering boat speed values in the table below. In this table there are four columns for different true wind angles. True wind angles measure the direction of the win relevant to the bow of the vessel. A true wind angle of 0° represents wind coming directly from the bow, and 180° represents wind coming directly from the stern. Sailing vessels should enter the closest point of sail in the first column header. The table has six rows for different true wind speeds (5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 knots). In each cell in the table, enter your boat's speed in knots for the given true wind angle and true wind speed. The polar diagram will be automatically updated as you enter this data. Your polar will be automatically saved in your account for reuse on your next visit.

True Wind Speed (kn) True Wind Angle
°
The best beat angle must be between 10 and 89
90° 135° 180°
5
kn
Must be between 0 and 30
kn
Must be between 0 and 30
kn
Must be between 0 and 30
kn
Must be between 0 and 30
10
kn
Must be between 0 and 30
kn
Must be between 0 and 30
kn
Must be between 0 and 30
kn
Must be between 0 and 30
15
kn
Must be between 0 and 30
kn
Must be between 0 and 30
kn
Must be between 0 and 30
kn
Must be between 0 and 30
20
kn
Must be between 0 and 30
kn
Must be between 0 and 30
kn
Must be between 0 and 30
kn
Must be between 0 and 30
25
kn
Must be between 0 and 30
kn
Must be between 0 and 30
kn
Must be between 0 and 30
kn
Must be between 0 and 30
30
kn
Must be between 0 and 30
kn
Must be between 0 and 30
kn
Must be between 0 and 30
kn
Must be between 0 and 30

Use this option to import a polar created elsewhere; or to create a more complex polar than is possible using the Edit option above; or to export and save your polar for safe-keeping or for re-use in some other routing application.

Paste your qtVlm, OpenCpn, or iPolar formatted polar data in the window below and click the Import button.

 
Route Positions
Elapsed Hours Date/Time Latitude Longitude Heading Speed COG SOG Wind Speed Gusting Wind Dir TWA Ocean Current Speed Ocean Current Direction
Passage Stats
Statistic Value
Departure Planning

Departure planning will calculate estimated route statistics based on the departure date/time, start location, and finish location that you configure on the Routing tab. It will calculate these stats on one day departure intervals starting with the departure date you specify on the Routing tab. These stats are rough estimates and intended for comparison of potential departure dates.

Statistic Plan 1 Plan 2 Plan 3 Plan 4 Plan 5 Plan 6 Plan 7 Plan 8 Plan 9 Plan 10 Plan 11 Plan 12 Plan 13 Plan 14 Plan 15
Account
Profile

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Administration
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