Anchor Alarm App

App Store Link

Exclusively available on the App Store for iPhone and iPad. Head to the App Store! If you want more information, please continue reading.

Introduction

What makes Anchor Alarm special?

Besides its clean design, it naturally includes all the important features necessary for perfect operation. Here's an overview of the key features that will make your stay in the anchorage easier.

Not Just Circles

The special feature of this app is that you can draw your allowed swing area yourself, whether oval, triangle, or L-shaped. If you don't like that, you can also set a circular swing area in the app.

Wake-up Guarantee

The alarm sound will get you out of your bunk even after too many sundowners, guaranteed!

Instructions

The basic principle after opening the app is to draw the swing area and then activate the alarm. There are additional options that allow you to, for example, draw and display the anchor on the map to better assess how to draw your allowed swing area.

The Four Tabs

Tab 1: Map

On the map you see a sketch of a small green ship, which is drawn to scale. The corresponding dimensions can be set in the settings. The small green ship always points its bow in the direction you're holding your iPhone. Therefore, it's important to hold the iPhone pointing towards the bow for correct display on the map!
An orange line shows the traveled path. This allows you to see exactly where the ship has swung after a few hours of operation. This helps you recognize wind changes during the night. You can reset this recorded track in the settings if needed.
The rings show the distance (The distance shown on the circle is the radius) from you.
With the Draw Swing Area button, you can draw the allowed swing area either freehand or as a circle on the map. Whether it's freehand or circle depends on what you've configured in the map handling settings.
With the Set Anchor Position button, you can mark the anchor on the map. You can only set the anchor as far from your position as possible given the water depth and chain length you entered in the settings. A sketch at the top shows you how taut the anchor chain must be at your chosen distance while positioning. This option is only available if you've activated anchor positioning in the map handling settings.

Tab 2: Help

Here you'll find instructions on how to use the app.

Tab 3: Alarm

Here you can arm the alarm. There are two different alarms: one based on your allowed swing area, and one that uses the device's internal compass to detect course deviation if you have bow and stern anchors deployed and one of them stops holding, causing the ship to turn. You need to activate the course alarm in the settings to see it here.
You can additionally mirror the swing area alarm to a second device. This way you can leave an iPhone or iPad (with cellular/GPS!) on the boat and use another device to check the situation on the boat while ashore. You need to activate mirroring to another device in the settings to see it here.

Tab 4: Settings

Vessel Dimensions

Your vessel dimensions are considered and displayed to scale on the map.

Apple Watch

If you use an Apple Watch, you must disable notification mirroring for the Anchor Alarm app, otherwise the iPhone won't play an alarm but the watch will only tap once on your wrist, which probably won't wake you up at night. You can find this setting in the Watch app on your iPhone here: Notifications ➡ Mirror iPhone Alerts from: ➡ Anchor Alarm must be disabled!

Border Color

When the app is on screen, a colored border can be displayed, each color has a specific meaning.
Green: An alarm is armed, but not triggered. Depending on the alarm type, you are either inside your defined swing area or course range.
Red: An alarm has triggered. Depending on the alarm type, you are either outside your defined swing area or course range.
Turquoise: Like green, an alarm is armed, but in this case the device with the turquoise border is mirroring another device that currently has a green border.