My location
The boat icon marks where you are, drawn above every data layer, and its bow points where your phone is pointing, not your course. Tap the boat button on the right to recenter the map on yourself. If no icon appears at all, the app has no location permission.
Live — follows your device location
More detail
On the iPhone app. The boat button is in the stack of controls on the right side of the map. The first time you tap it, the phone asks for permission to use your location. After that the boat icon appears and the map moves to it. While automatic trip recording is off, the app also asks each time you tap whether to turn it on. Choose Just My Location to only see where you are. The icon is a boat seen from above: red to port, green to starboard and blue aft. Each tap recenters the map once.
Which way the bow points. Turn the phone to face forward and the icon lines up.
On the website. The same boat button is at the bottom of the control stack on the right. Click it, allow the browser to use your location, and the map moves to you and marks the spot with a blue dot. The dot is placed once per click and does not move as you move.
How good the position is. It is whatever your phone or computer can manage: usually within a few yards in the open on a phone, worse under a hardtop or in the cabin. A tablet or computer with no GPS needs a network connection to estimate where it is.
Where it works. The icon works anywhere in the world. If you see your boat on a plain map with no ocean data around it, you are outside the water the ocean layers cover.
Privacy. Your position comes from your own device, and showing it on the map sends nothing to RipIQ. Recording a trip is a separate thing, and that does save your track to your Logbook.
If nothing shows after a tap, allow location for Bite Intel in the phone's Settings, or for the site in your browser.
The numbers
| How often it updates | iPhone app: continuously, while the app is open and location is allowed. Website: once per click |
| How fresh it usually is | No delay |
| How detailed it is | Your device's own accuracy: a few yards in the open on a phone, worse under cover |
| Where it covers | Worldwide |
| Observed or modeled | Observed, by your phone's GPS and compass |
| What you see on screen | iPhone app: a boat icon, red to port, green to starboard, blue aft. Website: a blue dot |
Source: your device's GPS and compass.