Basic UI — the chrome around every screen
A few controls float above every tab. Learn them once and they work
everywhere.
The tab bar
Nine tabs let you switch surfaces:
the leading edge.
Each tab is identified by an icon — anchor for SafeAnchor, dolphin for
Merconi, pixel octopus for Jules, gear for Settings, and so on.
Tap any tab to switch.
A sidebar toggle (the sidebar.left icon) at the top opens or hides a
menu listing all tabs with their full names — useful before you have
memorized the icons. A search icon opens the Command Palette for
jumping straight to a tab, layer, or chart region by name.
A small badge on the Store tab shows how many of your installed
regions have updates waiting.
Menu in the side panel (landscape & iPad)
In landscape (and on iPad) the map opens a resizable side panel
on the right edge. There the menu lives inside that panel as its home
screen — the separate left drawer and its toggle are not shown, because the
panel already gives the menu a permanent place with far more room. Tapping a
feature on the chart (a harbour, a vessel, a legend) slides its detail in over
the menu; Back returns you to the menu. Collapse the panel with the
chevron to reclaim the full map; the thin rail that remains re-opens it.
In portrait on iPhone, and on iPad held in portrait, there is no side
panel, so the menu stays in the familiar left drawer opened by the
sidebar.left toggle described above.
Route planning & Simulator dock here too
In landscape, panels that would otherwise cover the bottom of the chart
move into this same right side panel, so the map stays clear:
the depth / wind / wave / speed graphs, and the route actions) fills the
side panel instead of a bottom sheet. The menu is hidden while you plan and
returns when you leave Route mode or minimise the panel.
the simulator is running.
In portrait both still appear as draggable bottom sheets over the chart.
The sidebar header
The top of the sidebar carries a few quick links above the tab list:
jumps to the Store subscriptions.
to you (and the subtitle reflects open conversations), tapping straight
into the thread. Opens the in-app feedback flow where you can
report a bug or request a feature, attach a screenshot, and track the
status of everything you've submitted (Open / In progress / Resolved /
Closed) — with the team's replies and your own follow-ups in one thread.
The same screen is reachable from the SafeAnchor → Radar menu — see
Live Discover — what you've collected
On the map tabs the sidebar opens with a LIVE DISCOVER section. As you
pan the chart, AnchorQueen pulls nautical objects from online services —
lights, buoys, beacons, harbours & marinas, anchorages, dangers, landmarks,
and wrecks — and keeps them as you go.
Each row shows two numbers, e.g. Lights · 400 · +45:
(since the app launched; objects already cached from a previous run are
not counted).
A +N chip next to the pulsing LIVE DISCOVER header sums the session
total across every category — your "collected so far" tally.
Tap a row's +N badge to open the list of just those newly-collected
objects, sorted by distance. Tap any entry to see its full detail or swipe
to save it as a waypoint. (The AIS Vessels row shows a live count only —
vessels come and go, so there is no session tally.)
Reordering the tabs
You can put the tabs in any order you like:
its new position.
Tap Reset in the top-right corner at any time to restore the original
order. Your arrangement is saved automatically and survives closing the app.
The top header (map tabs)
On the three map tabs (SeaTracker, Capt's Notebook, Merconi) a
slim header rides over the chart with the tab's name, breadcrumb of your
current location, and quick actions for chart style and layers.
Map camera controls
On any map tab a vertical cluster of controls sits on the trailing edge:
your current GPS position. See [Safety: MOB](#mob) below.
Below the cluster, smaller toggles let you mute audio cues, hide the legend
layers, or enable clean-export mode.
The MOB button
The red MOB button is the most important control on the chart. One tap:
Use it the instant a person or object goes over the side. It works on every
map tab and is intentionally large and red so it can be hit without looking.
The GPS HUD
On the chart's Discover sub-mode the top-left HUD
shows your live position numbers:
Legend panels
Down the left and right edges of the map, legend panels hold the layer
toggles — Buoys, Seamarks, Harbours, Anchorages, Dangers, Wrecks, Lights
Sectors, AIS Vessels, Marine Life, Dive Sites, Fishing Watch, Ocean Data,
Articles, Captain's Marks. Each can be minimized to a pill button on the
Region Button Bar at top-center so you can choose what you see without
clutter.
Sub-mode bars (bottom)
Several tabs have a frosted-glass pill bar at the bottom showing the tab's
sub-modes:
The selected sub-mode is highlighted. Tap a pill to switch instantly.
Clean export mode
Some chart shots need to be saved without app chrome on top. The QuickActions
export removes the tab bar, sidebar, and legend panels and adds a small
title block plus data-source attribution while the export happens, then puts
the chrome back.
If something goes wrong
landscape lay the chrome out differently. The
[tab bar](#tab-bar) moves to the side in landscape.
SeaTracker, Capt's Notebook, or Merconi to use it.