About
Last updated: June 23, 2026
Smooth Sailing is a free, browser-based sailing passage planner for the Pacific Northwest and US West Coast. It times your departure to the tides and currents, routes around land, factors wind and waves along the way, and exports the route to your chartplotter.
How it works
You set a start and destination; Smooth Sailing finds a water route around islands and shorelines, then "marches the clock" leg by leg — pulling the forecast and tidal current for the time you'll actually be at each point. It models a motor-sail hybrid with real tacking and finds the departure time that catches fair current through the passes.
Planning aid only — not for navigation. Always use official, up-to-date charts and your own judgment. Wind, wave, and current values are model forecasts, not observations, and routing is approximate.
Data & attribution
- Seamarks (buoys, beacons, lights, rocks, harbours, anchorages) — © OpenStreetMap contributors, via the Overpass API, licensed under the Open Database License (ODbL).
- Forecasts (wind, waves) — the US National Weather Service / NOAA api.weather.gov (public domain).
- Tidal currents — NOAA CO-OPS Tides & Currents (public domain).
- Nautical chart overlay — NOAA Electronic Navigational Charts (public domain).
- Land/water data — derived from public-domain elevation data.
- Base map tiles — © CARTO, © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Forecast, tide, and current data are requested directly from NOAA/NWS by your browser when you plan a trip.
Contact
Questions, bugs, or a region you'd like added? Email us.