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Sailing route planner: plot your passage, nautical miles and cruising area
With this sailing route planner you plot your passage harbour by harbour on the chart. You see the nautical miles per leg, course, passage time and arrival, whether you will make port after dark and which cruising area your boat insurance needs for the route. Planning is free and the route stays in your browser.
Tap the chart to set a waypoint. Drag points to move them, click the line to insert a point in between.
- Nautical miles
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- Passage time
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- Fuel
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- Arrival
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No waypoints yet. Find your port of departure or tap the chart.
| No. | Waypoint | nm | Course | Time | Arrival |
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Cruising area for this route
Part of the route runs through coastal waters of Ukraine, Russia or Georgia. These are excluded from cruising area d, please ask us before you go.
The check follows the cruising area limits in our policy wording and uses simplified coastlines. What counts is the cruising area in your policy. You can only extend it before you set off, never afterwards.
Hazards near the route:
How to plan your passage
- Find your port of departure or tap the chart. Every click sets the next waypoint. From the regional view onwards, harbours, anchorages and mooring fields from our berth directory show up as blue dots, and a click takes them over with their name.
- Drag a waypoint to move it. A click on the dashed line inserts a point in between, for example to round a cape or a restricted area. The cross in the list deletes a point, and Return leg reverses the whole route.
- Enter your speed through the water and, if you motor, your fuel use per hour. The planner does not allow for tide or wind: take a foul current off your speed and passage time and arrival will be right.
- Download the route as GPX for your plotter or navigation app, or copy the link for your crew. The link only holds the waypoints, nothing is stored on our side.
The five cruising areas from a to e
Area a covers rivers, lakes and canals within Europe.
Area b is a plus the North Sea and the Baltic, bounded by the lines Bergen to Wick and Land's End to Ushant.
Area c is b plus the Mediterranean up to the Dardanelles including the coast of Morocco, but not the other coasts of North Africa and the Middle East.
Area d is c plus the Atlantic up to 25 degrees north and 20 degrees west with the Canaries and Madeira, not the Azores, and the Black Sea.
Area e is worldwide, so it also covers everything beyond areas a to d.
What the plan does not replace
The route planner draws straight lines between your waypoints and knows nothing about shoals, restricted areas, traffic separation schemes or bridge clearances. Check every route on an up-to-date chart and in the Notices to Mariners, and get the forecast before you cast off.
Questions about the route planner
How does the route planner work out the nautical miles?
As a rhumb line between waypoints, the same straight line you draw with a plotter on the chart. One nautical mile is 1,852 metres. On long ocean legs the great circle is somewhat shorter than the rhumb line.
Which cruising area do I need for my passage?
The highest area your route touches. A passage from Kiel to Copenhagen stays in the Baltic and needs area b. Crossing Biscay into the Mediterranean needs area d, because the Atlantic lies in between.
Why does the arrival say “after dark”?
For every waypoint the planner works out sunrise and sunset on the day you arrive. If your arrival falls outside, you make port at night. Unfamiliar harbours are harder to enter in the dark, so leave earlier or slow down.
What is GPX and where do I open the file?
GPX is the common exchange format for routes. Chart plotters, Navionics, OpenCPN and most sailing apps import it. The file holds your waypoints in the order you set them, with their names.
Harbours and map tiles: OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Coastlines: Natural Earth.
