Virtual Buoys was designed so that you would not look at your phone during the race. Almost all of the functionality of the app is presented to you verbally. It does not contain a graphical depiction of wing dykes and buoys on the river.
Suppose you had an assistant in your boat who could see the exact center line of the river channel and this assistant would tell you how far away from the center line of the river channel you are at regular intervals.
This assistant would also keep track of your speed and give you predictions about your arrival time at various boat ramps. The assistant would compose texts to send to your ground crew and to race officials about your situation.
Because this assistant was constantly updating you with this information at regular intervals, it would not be necessary for you to look at maps or drawings. This assistant is Virtual Buoys. You tell it how often you want to be updated with river channel information (Channel Alert Interval) and if it can ignore this update if you are closer than a certain distance to the center line of the river channel (Deviation Distance). These values are set on the Audio Settings screen.
Also at regular intervals, Virtual Buoys will notify you of how far you have paddled on the river by announcing your current river mile, your current speed, and you segment speed since the last time you reset the segment. The frequency of this notification is called the General Alert Interval and is also set on the Audio Settings Screen.
Sometimes, you need to be reminded to take certain actions, like drink water or eat food. It is important that these functions occur at a regular interval. That’s what an assistant is for. You can set a reminder to tell you to take action(s) on a regular basis Reminders screen.
When you reach a check point, you must check in and then when you leave that check point, you must check out. This is done by sending a formatted text to race control. Your assistant will prepare these text messages and all you have to do is send them by clicking on your send button in text messages.
Also it would be nice if you knew how you were doing with respect to the Reaper. Your assistant will tell you if you are not paddling fast enough to stay ahead of the Reaper.
These are the primary uses of Virtual Buoys. Accurate positioning of your boat with respect to the channel will increase your speed significantly.
And finally, all proceeds from the sale of Virtual Buoys will be donated to Missouri River Relief.
River Navigation Software 