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Why ‘Looking Out the Window’ Isn’t Enough for Planning Georgian Bay Boating

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Planning a boating trip on Georgian Bay? Some boaters claim they just “look out the window.” But is that really enough?

While determining where to go is easy with tools like the Navionics App or your favourite chart plotter, figuring out when to go and what to do on the water is a different story.

A recent Facebook survey showed that most boating enthusiasts rely on various weather, wave, and wind apps—typically three or four—to decide the best time to hit the water. There was no standard answer for those providing their response. Interestingly, a few respondents said they simply look out the window. This might work for quick local trips, but it’s not ideal for planning ahead or longer journeys.

Southeast Pine Island – Photo by Ron Neumann

Georgian Bay is a premier boating destination, attracting enthusiasts from all over. Two such boaters, tech professionals from Waterloo, Ontario, now living in Penetanguishene, were frustrated with the planning chaos. They aimed to create a better solution—a standard app for determining the best times to go out and what activities to engage in.

They started by gathering numerous data points—weather, waves, winds, water levels, and temperatures. They quickly realized that different activities have different optimal conditions. For instance, strong winds might be perfect for sailing or windsurfing but unsuitable for small powerboats or kayaking. Larger boats handle waves better, while smaller ones struggle.

Existing weather apps didn’t cater to their specific needs, so they developed NautWise, a web app that consolidates all this information into an easy-to-read display. NautWise provides hourly and daily forecasts for your boat size and preferred activities, using a simple green or red indicator to mark favourable or unfavourable conditions. These are called the Daily and Weekly Planner and are designed to help you plan whenever you travel on the water.

NautWise Daily and Weekly Planner. Plus image showing detail.

With NautWise, you can customize the app to reflect the size and type of your boat and your favourite water activities. Whether you have a 28-foot powerboat, or a dinghy, or love to kayak and swim, NautWise tailors the app to your needs, including your location. Instead of juggling multiple apps, you get a clear, concise Daily or Weekly Planning forecast.

Clicking on an indicator gives detailed information on why it’s a good or bad day for boating or your chosen activity. It will tell you the wind speed, wave height, air and water temperatures, and precipitation chances, giving you a comprehensive view of the conditions.

NautWise does all the heavy lifting by performing thousands of calculations based on your preferences and location. It also continues to update the information as the conditions change, providing a new update every few minutes. This simplifies your planning process, helping you avoid information overload and ensuring you don’t miss out on that perfect sunset kayak or smooth cruise on flat waters.

If you keep your boat at a cottage or marina, NautWise is an excellent tool for planning your visits and activities in advance. It even offers a morning update feature, sending you a daily email with the best times for boating, sailing, kayaking, or swimming for each hour and day of the upcoming week.

Spend less time planning and more time enjoying Georgian Bay with NautWise. Don’t miss another great day on the water!

Try a free, fully functioning version of NautWise at nautwise.com. Or visit this link to sign up for a free Account. Join the hundreds of users already using NautWise for their Georgian Bay boating planning.

Boating at the Western Islands – Photo by Ron Neumann

Simplify Your Morning Routine with NautWise Morning Updates

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Every morning presents a new opportunity to explore the pristine waters of Georgian Bay, whether you’re planning a leisurely sail, a thrilling kayak trip, or a peaceful day of fishing. But as every seasoned water enthusiast knows, the success of your day often hinges on the caprices of weather and water conditions. This is where the new NautWise Morning Update comes into play, transforming how you plan your water activities with a simple, efficient morning routine.

The Essence of NautWise Morning Updates

NautWise Morning Updates are designed to bring convenience and efficiency to your daily planning. Delivered directly to your email each morning, these updates provide a consolidated view of the day’s and week’s weather and wave forecasts, tailored specifically to your interests and location. With this feature, NautWise ensures that you start your day fully informed and ready to make the best decisions about your activities on Georgian Bay.

Key Benefits of Morning Updates

  1. Convenience: Receive important weather and wave information without having to search for it. Open your email, and there it is—your planning is practically done.
  2. Customization: Tailored specifically to your preferences and local conditions, these updates eliminate irrelevant information, focusing only on what you need to know.
  3. Time-saving: With the need for multiple app checks eliminated, you save time every morning. This means more time for coffee, breakfast, or a few extra minutes of sleep.
  4. Direct Access: Clicking on the image in the email automatically logs you into the NautWise service, where you can delve deeper into details or adjust your plans with ease.

A Day in the Life of a Boater with NautWise Morning Updates

Meet Mark, a dedicated boater who lives just a short drive from Georgian Bay. He loves to take his trailerable boat out on the water, but his busy life means that every minute of his planning needs to be efficient.

Before NautWise Morning Updates: Mark used to start his days early, coffee in one hand, phone in the other, hopping between various apps and websites to check the weather, wind speeds, and wave conditions. This routine was not only time-consuming but also cumbersome, as he tried to piece together disparate bits of information to decide whether it was a good day to hit the water.

With NautWise Morning Updates: Now, Mark’s morning routine is streamlined. He wakes up to the NautWise Morning Update in his inbox, which gives him a clear picture of the day’s weather and water conditions. With just a glance, he knows if the day is suitable for taking the boat out. The update includes a weekly planner as well, so he can start thinking about the best days ahead for longer excursions.

Just this morning, Mark checked his email and saw that the conditions were perfect for a day out. He clicked on the image in the update, which took him directly to the NautWise platform to check the detailed forecast and confirm his plans. By the time his coffee was done, so was his planning. Mark was ready to hook up his trailer and head to the bay, confident that he was making the most out of his day.

Ready to Transform Your Mornings?

If you’re like Mark and want to optimize your planning for Georgian Bay activities, NautWise Morning Updates are your gateway to a simpler, more enjoyable day. Start each morning informed and end it with great memories on the water. Subscribe now and turn your daily forecasts into daily adventures.

NautWise is Much More than a Weather App

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We all have our favourite weather app.   Maybe it is because it has no ads, pretty icons, or a good radar display, but it is not complete for living and boating on Georgian Bay. As a boater, we also likely have wind apps and we know how to get access to the information from the Georgian Bay buoy.  Most weather apps don’t understand the difference between local weather and marine weather. As boaters, we also listen to the Canadian Coast Guard’s continuous marine broadcast on our VHF radio for alerts.  The problem is that this keeps us busy looking at our screens, listening to our radios, and not out enjoying our time on Georgian Bay.

NautWise has the same current and predicted data as the weather apps, but it focuses on using that information to assist you in planning your day.   It has a unique Daily and Weekly Planner feature that provides information you just can’t find in any other place.  This allows you to make plans for your day or week with all of the factors that you would normally check, but without loading multiple apps. 

It also loads information from the closest Georgian Bay buoy and gathers water temperature. It stores many of the measurements in a database providing a history so that you can plot trends.  This history also allows the ability to plot these measurements against each other.   As an extra feature, NautWise keeps a history of Radar and Ice Charts with animation capability.  This provides for both exploration and understanding of what makes Georgian Bay so special. This will provide you with a good working knowledge of what is really going on in Georgian Bay.

As a special bonus for those who have docks, or keep their boats in a marina, NautWise tracks the specifics of the depth of the water at your dock, and measures the exact amount of water below your boat with a feature we call “Depth Below Draft”.

The big difference offered by NautWise is the Custom Rating System.  It combines several different measurements into a simple-to-use 5-star rating.  But it is both Simple but Deep.  You can click on the 5-star rating and see what factors make it up, and how they have been used.  It is not a “Black Box”.  You don’t have to guess why the rating is what it is.   If conditions are not optimal, then you can see why.  Is it the wind, the water temperature, or the waves?

This is beneficial for many reasons.   Custom – NautWise allows you to pick the top 5 Custom Ratings that you want to see, in the order you want to see them.  That way it is customized for your use with your most important information at the top.  Other apps require you to click 10 times to find what you need. Fast – It does calculations on current information instantly, taking into account all of the factors that will impact your experience.  Accurate – calculations are prioritized and ranked for what is important to you and they are continuously updated as the situation changes.

This is a game-changer!  Everything you need to enjoy Georgian Bay is in your hand, (or on your desktop).

Instantaneous. The proprietary calculation replaces a difficult calculation, but the detail is also available so you don’t have to blindly trust it.

Try NautWise today and see why your time on Georgian Bay is about to be more enjoyable!