Afloat Plan Home for anyone who boats, kayaks, canoes, jet skis, or paddles
Purpose: To submit a plan while recreating on the water. Let others know you arrived home safely. Have someone search for you if you don’t come back.
Submit via text message all the details of your planned water sports activity. Choose 5 contacts to receive a description of your boat, kayak, jet ski, paddleboard, or canoe.
Setting up the app is easy, and you only do it once.
• Enter your name, address, phone number, and contact information.
• Complete the description of your watercraft—hull numbers, registration, size, and colors.
• List your emergency contacts so they are contacted if you are late and do not end your trip.
File a float plan in just a few easy steps. Type in your starting location, what your destination is, and what the arrival or return time are. When you push submit, it sends a description of your watercraft, with your starting location and a Google map link, to your contacts.
During the course of your activity, your location will be captured every 10 minutes and stored in the cloud. The app continues to acquire your GPS location via satellite and track your trip even when you are out of LTE range. When you are out of range, trip location data is archived locally on your smartphone or tablet. As soon as you reenter LTE range, your offline trip locations are synchronized with the cloud.
In the event you don’t end your trip at the scheduled time, the app will send a notification for you to end your trip. After 15 minutes, it will remind you again to end your trip. If after 30 minutes you have not ended the trip, the app will send your trip map to your contacts with route information and your last known location.
If you have a Sirius Signal model C-1002 SOS eVDSD, you can test and turn on your signal remotely. The app also shows the light’s battery status.
The app also includes an offline interactive looped audio first aid treatment guide for common on-water emergencies.
Pretty easy; would like to be able to enter departure date/time
Easy to set up. I like that it automatically sends the float plan to emergency contacts. The downside for me is that it assumes you are filling out the plan immediately prior to departure. I’d like to be able to specify a departure date/time so that I can fill it out while I’m planning and not as I’m trying to get in the water at a busy boat ramp. Also I kayak in remote places where signal is spotty, so I’d like to be able to send my plan while I’m still in civilization.