Track line — the path you are recording on the chart
What the line behind your boat is, the difference between recording it and showing it, and how it can start without you touching anything.
The line behind your boat on the chart is a recorded track: your position, sampled as you move. Two things record one — a leg (start a leg, or tap Go now on the chart, and the leg records its own track until you end it) or a cruising track, which needs no leg at all. Cruising tracks start by themselves while theONE is open (Settings → Display → Record tracks by itself, on unless you turn it off): three minutes above 2 knots with no leg running starts one, thirty minutes stopped saves it. You can also start one yourself from the Track line row in Layers or the GPS Tracking chip on Mission Control; a track you start by hand is never stopped for you — after two hours under half a knot, or twelve hours of recording however far you have gone, a banner asks "Still tracking? The boat hasn't moved for 2 hours." and waits for Keep tracking or Stop and save.
Recording and showing are separate. The Track line switch in Layers only shows or hides the line — recording keeps running when the line is hidden, and turning the line on records nothing. The row's own words tell you which is which: "Recording · 2.4 nm" means it is being recorded; "Recording with the leg" means the leg's own track is running (the GPS Tracking chip says the same); "Not recording" means it is not, and the Start button beside it fixes that.
If the line stops drawing while a track is recording, your GPS feed has dropped — open Layers and confirm GPS live position is on. When a leg ends its track is archived with the trip; when a cruising track is saved it lands in Saved Tracks on the chart.
Steps
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Cast off
Start a leg from the trip card on Mission Control, or tap Go now on the chart with nothing planned. Either way the leg records its own track from the first fix.
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Or just go
With Record tracks by itself on, no leg running and theONE open on the screen, get above 2 knots and stay there three minutes: a cruising track starts on its own and a toast says "Cruising track started — you're underway". With it off, the chart asks "You're moving — start a cruising track?" instead. Nothing starts from a closed app — open the chart before you leave the slip.
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Watch the line build
Open the chart. Your path renders behind the vessel marker as you move, on a leg or on a cruising track — both draw here. Fixes are taken about once a second for the first minute, then every five seconds, so the line starts almost immediately and builds as you go. Layers → Track line hides or shows it; the Start button there begins a cruising track when no leg is running.
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If theONE closes mid-leg
Lock the phone or switch apps and a leg keeps recording. If iOS closes theONE while a leg is recording — to free memory, say — iOS can start it again in the background and the recording carries on; the minutes it was closed show as a gap in the track, never a straight line drawn across them. If you force-quit theONE — swipe it up and away in the app switcher — iOS stops its location and does not start it again: nothing is recorded from then until you open theONE yourself. The leg is still underway when you do, and the track picks up again with the gap marked. A paused leg stays paused until you resume it. Cruising tracks are not restarted this way; only a leg is.
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Tie up
End the leg and its track is archived into the trip — it isn't lost, it just stops drawing on the live chart. A cruising track that started by itself is saved after thirty minutes stopped (with theONE open); one you started by hand waits for you to stop it from the GPS Tracking chip. Forget, and after two hours at rest the chart and Mission Control show "Still tracking? The boat hasn't moved for 2 hours." — Stop and save keeps the track, Keep tracking lets it run.
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Find it afterwards
A finished cruising track is kept under Saved Tracks — the menu on the chart itself, not the Routes list. Routes are passages you plan; tracks are where you actually went. A leg's track is archived into its trip instead.
Related
- Chart — what the chart and map show youRead the chart view — your vessel's position, course over ground, breadcrumb track, and the chart layers underneath.
- Where am I? — find your boat on the chartRecenter the chart on your vessel and confirm your GPS position is live.
- Inside a trip — what every section meansTour the Trip Detail screen.
- Tracks that start by themselves — the cruising trackWhen you leave the dock without a leg, the app records a cruising track on its own: three minutes above two knots starts it, thirty minutes stopped saves it. Record tracks by itself is on unless you turn it off.
- Go now — cast off from the chart in one tapLeaving right now with nothing planned? One tap on the chart starts a trip, a leg and its track; you name the destination when you tie up.
- Chart layers — GPS, channel markers, weather radar, buoys, track lineToggle the five chart overlays — GPS position, channel markers (AtoN buoys and beacons from NOAA), NEXRAD weather radar, NOAA weather buoys and the track line — and start a cruising track from the Track line row.