六助246

Six things a small-boat sailor reaches for most often, laid out on one chart table: a signal encoder, the Beaufort scale, a passage calculator, a tide clock, a compass rose and a marine unit converter. Behind them sits an almanac of signal flags, nautical terms, knots and practical guides, and at the end of the day there is a passage log to write up in. The search box on the Helm page reaches everything at once. Type a letter to see its flag, a word to find the term, a force number to read the sea state, a knot to get the steps. A few to try — Oscar, lee shore, force 6, bowline, reciprocal. Each lands on a different page, and one of them is the reason the man-overboard drill starts with a shout. SIX HELPERS • Signal Encoder turns any message into a flag hoist, the phonetic alphabet and Morse, plays the Morse aloud at 10, 15 or 20 words per minute, and can blink it on the torch • Beaufort Scale converts a wind speed into force, sea state, probable wave height and a note on what the boat should be doing about it • Passage Calculator solves time, speed or distance from the other two, then gives the ETA from a departure time and the fuel needed with a reserve • Tide Clock takes one high water and one low water from the tide table and draws the curve by the rule of twelfths, with the height at any time you choose • Compass Rose names the 32-point bearing, gives the reciprocal, and converts between true, magnetic and compass using variation and deviation • Marine Units converts nautical miles, cables, fathoms, knots, hectopascals, inches of mercury, gallons and litres in one list SIGNALS Every alphabet flag and numeral pennant is drawn on screen, not photographed, with its single-flag meaning, phonetic word and Morse. The common two-flag signals from the International Code are explained, and a flag drill checks whether the colours have stuck. ALMANAC The Beaufort table from calm to hurricane. A glossary grouped by directions, hull and deck, rig and sails, navigation, tides and weather, and seamanship. Knots, each with a line diagram, step-by-step tying, a memory tip and a note on when it holds. Guides on the collision rules, navigation lights, buoyage in regions A and B, VHF procedure, anchoring, man overboard, passage planning, the ship's bell and reading the weather from the deck. PASSAGE LOG Record each trip with date, route, distance, hours underway, wind force and direction, sea state, crew and notes. The log tallies total distance, hours, passage count and your longest run; entries can be pinned, and the whole log exports as CSV. A reference and practice companion, not a navigation instrument: the tide clock and calculators work only from figures you enter, and official publications remain the authority before you sail. Six helpers, one almanac, one log.