Offshore, the internet connection is the expensive part of the boat. Offwind decides what to send and fetch by what the link you are on costs: a marina's Wi-Fi is free, Starlink may be capped, an Iridium GO! is slow and charged by the minute. The Link screen is where you tell it.
From the cockpit, open More, then Link. In Plan, open Settings, then Connectivity.
Weather downloads and keeping projects and polars in step with the website need you to be signed in: in Settings, press Sign in to Offwind at the top.
Confirm each new link
The first time the phone joins a network, Offwind guesses what it is and says why, such as Looks like Starlink because a Starlink dish answered on the network. Until you confirm it, only safety and control traffic is sent over it.
- Open the suggestion. Under Current link, press Review and confirm.
- Check the type and speed. Type lists Starlink, Iridium Certus, Iridium GO! exec, Iridium GO!, Inmarsat FleetBroadband, Cellular, Wi-Fi (marina, home) and Other. Speed is filled in from the type.
- Say what it costs. Turn on This link is free only if your plan has no data charges or caps. Otherwise enter Cost per MB or Cost per minute if you know them. Left empty, costs show as unknown, never as free.
- Set the budget. Daily cap (KB), Passage cap (KB), Per-request cap (KB) and Ask above (KB) come filled in with sensible values for the type. Change them to match your plan.
- Confirm. Press Confirm. Offwind remembers the profile for this network.
Under Traffic classes, each kind of traffic, such as Weather in or Position/track out, can be Automatic, Ask or Hold. Safety is always sent.
Offwind treats Starlink as metered unless you mark it free. On a satellite or cellular link it also reminds you to turn on Low Data Mode for that network in the phone's Settings, so iOS pauses iCloud and background updates on it.
The Starlink dish
When the phone is on a Starlink dish's Wi-Fi, Current link shows Starlink dish as Healthy or Degraded, and its Latency. Offwind asks the dish at most once a minute. Degraded means the dish is obstructed now or is losing more than one ping in ten.
The outbox
Everything waiting to go out, or to come in, sits in the outbox. Outbox shows how many items and how much data. Open it to see each item, its size, its cost on this link, and why it is waiting.
- Approve sending lets an item through that is over the Ask above size.
- Swipe right for Send now, Move up, or Retry on one that failed.
- Swipe left for Drop, then slide to confirm. A dropped item is never sent.
Airplane for data holds everything at once. Nothing is sent, and recording and routing carry on. Turn it off and the outbox picks up where it stopped.
Under Traffic, Today shows what was sent and received on each link, with its cost. Open it for the day-by-day ledger and Export CSV.
Race rules mode
Some races forbid outside help once you start. Race rules mode makes Offwind refuse shore messages, weather briefings and routes pushed from shore, on every channel, and log what it refused.
- When you set out. In the Go sailing sheet, turn on Race rules. It turns off again when you finish the passage. Turn on Race rules while sailing in the project's crew and sharing section, and Go sailing starts with Race rules already on for that project.
- At any time. On Link, under Race rules, type the Race name and press Turn on race rules mode. To end it, hold Turn off race rules mode.
The Audit log lists what was refused and when, and when the mode was turned on and off. Open Race rules log from the project to export it for the race committee.
If you send data to the boat's displays, Withhold forecast values in race rules mode keeps the forecast next-leg values off them too. See Send data to your displays.
Limits
- Offwind counts only its own traffic. On a terminal's Wi-Fi, other apps on the phone can spend airtime too.
- The Starlink status needs the phone on the dish's own network. Behind another router it may not be seen.