What each part of VesselView shows, and how to read it.
The map shows where each vessel is. Tap a pin for her status, position, how she is moving, and when she last reported. Signed out you see vessels at their home ports; signed-in users see live positions.
One tap finds your nearest port and the next sailing from it, departure, destination, arrival, and how long until she goes. You can also pick a port by hand if you are not there yet.
Tap the star on any crossing and it lands in the Saved tab, so the ferry you actually take is one tap away next time instead of scrolling through the whole timetable. Saved on this phone, no account needed.
Road times on the main approaches to the pier, with a leave-by time that allows 45 minutes for check-in, amber or red when the clock is against you. Shown only for piers you can actually drive to: island piers get island roads only, and some get nothing. Times are typical rather than live unless a traffic provider is configured, so allow margin at peak times and in poor weather.
At the six piers with a station right beside the terminal, a By train card shows the station, the line and, where a live feed is configured, upcoming departures and any delays or cancellations straight from National Rail. Most piers have no station nearby, so most crossings show nothing here.
Wind, gusts, visibility and swell at each port, with a disruption likelihood worked out from them. Bands are colour-coded so a glance is enough.
Pick a "from" and "to" and a day to see the sailings that match, departure, arrival and the vessel usually rostered. Every route has its own page with the full timetable both ways, and a copy button for pasting into an email.
The café menu with prices, vegetarian and vegan marked, and children's meals at £6.50. Catering varies by vessel: the card shown is the one carried on the major ships, and small ferries carry none at all, each vessel says which applies to her.
One tap sends the sailing: vessel, route, time and status, straight to WhatsApp, Messages or anywhere else, with a live link so whoever is meeting you can check it themselves.
Save a photo of your ticket so it is one tap away at the pier instead of buried in an email. It stays on your phone and is never uploaded, VesselView does not issue or check tickets.
Sort and search the fleet by name, route or status. Vessel information is the reference book: build year, capacity, length, speed, and a photograph where a licensed one exists.
Planned maintenance, timetable changes, disruptions and cover arrangements, grouped so the serious ones come first.
Open a crossing and turn alerts on, and your phone tells you if it is disrupted or cancelled, no account needed. In Settings you can add the quieter ones too: early warnings, and timetable changes. On an iPhone this needs the app added to your Home Screen first.
Appearance (Automatic follows the sunrise and sunset, or match your phone), text size, which alerts reach you, and whether location may be used. All kept on this device. Nothing here needs an account and nothing is sent anywhere.
Everything above works with no account. The sign-in is only for approved ferry operations staff, who see live vessel positions from onboard equipment rather than home ports. Accounts need a work email address and an administrator's approval, so there is nothing to sign up for otherwise.
Along the bottom, Map, Routes, Saved, Weather, Updates and Vessels. These are the six you will use most, and they are always there.
Menu at the top, islands, on-board facilities, your ticket, Settings, this guide, and About.
Tap anything, a vessel on the map, a crossing in a list, a warning on a banner. Almost everything on screen opens something more detailed underneath.
Lost? The ship’s wheel at the top left always returns you to the map.
Add this page to your home screen and it opens like an app, full screen, straight to the map.
Every position is labelled with its source, because they are not equally current:
Anything older than 60 minutes is marked Stale. A stale position is the last one received, not necessarily where the vessel is now.
The shape tells you how the position was obtained:
Faded markers are stale. The last position received, not necessarily where the vessel is now. Vessel names appear beside the markers once you zoom in.
A vessel making way shows as Underway with the direction and speed beside it, NW · 14.2 kn. That comes from the live fix, not the weekly board, so it can appear before the board has been updated; where the two disagree, the vessel detail says so.
Most live positions report location only, so the direction and speed shown are worked out from where the vessel was at the previous reading. That makes it the course she is travelling, which is what matters here, rather than the heading off her compass. It needs two readings, so a vessel that has just started reporting shows no direction until the next one.
A vessel recorded as off service, dry dock or annual overhaul keeps that status even while moving, under tow to the yard is still not in service. Movement is shown alongside it rather than replacing it. Anything under 1 knot counts as alongside: a berthed vessel's position drifts a little with the tide.
Everything above works with no account. Signing in adds live vessel positions, the assistant, and, for administrators: status editing, onboard details and the service log. Registration is limited to an authorised organisation email address, and every new account waits for an administrator to approve it. A second factor is required once you are in.
Take the short walkthrough: 9 screens covering where everything lives, the map, your next crossing, saving it, alerts and the weather.