Norfolk Broads Map, Route Planner and Live Navigation

1. Start In Trip Settings

Open Trip Settings first and set your Start Date, the number of days in the trip, and your boat's clearance if you know it.

Your boat clearance is used to compare your boat against bridges and highlight possible issues in the Planner and Itinerary.

Hire craft is the default. Use the craft type button only if you are planning for a private craft; daylight breaches become advisories instead of hire-craft warnings, and the choice is stored in saved trip links.

Metric measurements are the default. Use the measurements button to switch saved trip links to Imperial; boat clearance then uses feet and inches, while live river speed limits still show mph to match riverside signs and boat speedometers.

2. Build A Route On The Map

Use the Planner drawer for the day you are currently editing.

Use the AI route planner button if you want Broads Voyage to draft a route or change the current trip from a short instruction. The AI feature is new, so always review the itinerary, warnings and stopping choices before using the plan.

The AI can also answer questions using information already in Broads Voyage, such as bridge details, tide timing, venues, moorings, services and the current route. It cannot score scenery or quietness, make bookings, check ratings, prices, weather, live venue or mooring availability, forecast future bridge clearance, optimise around tides, or search the web.

• Click the waterway to add your start point.
• Click again to create the end point.
• Every further click becomes the next waypoint in order.
• Use the Search button to search names, types and services. Results update as you type and are grouped by what matched.
• If your location marker is showing, search results also show the waterway distance to each match.
• Selecting a search result jumps to that place, opens its normal popup and closes the search box.
• Hover over a place, mooring, venue, bridge or warning marker to preview it. Click it to add it to the route.
• Non-Authority moorings may show access warnings when public access is not confirmed. A Private pill means you should not plan to stop there without explicit permission from the owner or operator.
• When observation prompts are enabled, Follow may show a one-time Yes/No prompt asking whether optional bridge, tide or current data requests are allowed on this device. One-shot Find does not show data request popups.
• If you choose No, all optional data request popups are disabled on this device. If you choose Yes, any later bridge, tide or current requests remain optional, and Don't ask me this again still stops future prompts of that type.
• You can return to the same place later in the day, for example for a round trip, as long as the same stop is not directly next to itself.

3. Edit And Reorder Stops

• Drag route points on the map to move them along the waterway. The route and timings update as you drag.
• Drag a route point onto a POI to turn that stop into the POI and route to the nearest usable waterway point.
• Drag a route point off a POI to turn it back into a normal waterway point.
• Use the route boxes in the Planner to reorder stops or remove a stop.
• The compact route cards below the boxes show route information only. Use the ! button on a card to view its warnings, advisories and notes.

4. Stays And Repeated Stops

Every stop after the start can have a planned stay time.

• Use the Stay box in the Planner route row, or the stay field in the route-point popup.
• If the same place appears more than once, use the popup arrows to move between those planned stops and edit the correct one.

5. Plan Multiple Days

• Use Days in Trip Settings to create a multi-day trip.
• Use the day arrows in the Planner to switch the day you are editing.
• By default, the end point of one day syncs to the start point of the next day.
• Use the sync checkbox in the route-point popup to turn that link on or off for that day pair.
• If you temporarily reduce the day count, hidden days are kept during the current session in case you add them back.

6. Review The Itinerary

Open the Itinerary drawer to review the selected day.

• The summary cards show departure, finish, travel time, stopped time, total distance and warnings.
• Use Print itinerary to print the full trip itinerary across all visible days.
• Press Alt+P or Ctrl+P to print route maps when a route is planned, or the wider Broads map when no route is planned.
• Use the in-app print buttons for the most reliable layout; browser menu printing cannot always choose the prepared map view.
• The Advisories handle is collapsed by default so you can reach the waypoint information quickly. Expand it to see guidance cards, with counts for Critical, Warning and Info advisories.
• The timeline shows when you travel and when you stay at each stop.
• The leg cards show departure, arrival, travel time, stop time and notes for each section.
• Use the day arrows in the Itinerary to inspect another day without changing the day you are editing in the Planner.

7. Understand Warnings

• If a bridge looks tight for your boat, the affected route point and itinerary items are marked with warnings.
• Bridge guidance can include local tide context for the planned arrival time, such as whether water is rising or falling near the bridge. That context is advisory and separate from the clearance estimate.
• The Itinerary also highlights daylight limits and Broads etiquette hours, including cruising before sunrise, after sunset, within the final hour before sunset, or outside the recommended engine hours of 08:00 to 20:00, when engine use is discouraged unless needed for propulsion.
• Use Tide View to see route tide and current context on the map. It is visual guidance only and does not change route timings.
• A red ! on the map marks the location of a warning.
• Red warnings take priority over yellow advisories.
• Bridge clearance estimates, local tide context, daylight guidance and etiquette guidance are advisory only. Always check official bridge information, gauge boards, notices and local conditions before passage.

8. Save The Trip

• Use Save trip to copy a shareable URL to your clipboard.
• Save that link somewhere safe. Opening it later restores the trip data stored in the URL.
• Use the layers button on the map if you want aerial imagery instead of the standard map.