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SkyLocation

Sailing & Marine

Open water. Precise position. Always.

Miles from shore with no cell coverage, SkyLocation delivers exact coordinates, speed over ground, and position accuracy — a reliable backup to your primary chartplotter.

Forty miles offshore. Your chartplotter just went dark.

Electronics fail. Saltwater corrodes connections. Voltage spikes fry circuit boards. Every experienced sailor has a story about a chartplotter dying at the worst possible moment — approaching an unfamiliar harbor at dusk, navigating a shipping channel in fog, or rounding a headland with hidden rocks.

SkyLocation on your iPhone becomes an independent position source that shares no wiring, no power bus, and no antenna with your boat electronics. Keep your phone in a waterproof case clipped to your PFD, and you have a GPS fix that survives whatever takes out your main navigation system.

On the open ocean, GPS reception is at its absolute best — no buildings, no trees, no terrain to block signals. SkyLocation shows speed over ground for dead reckoning checks, and coordinates are ready to radio in a pan-pan or mayday call if the situation demands it.

Built for sailing & marine

Every feature designed for your specific needs.

Independent GPS Backup

Your phone runs on its own battery, its own antenna, its own GPS chip. When your boat's electronics fail, SkyLocation still has a fix.

Speed Over Ground (SOG)

Track SOG in knots for dead reckoning calculations, passage planning, and estimating time to waypoint. Compare against your knot meter to check for current.

Position for the Ship's Log

Log latitude, longitude, and time at regular intervals as required by good seamanship. A position every hour tells your story if you need to reconstruct your track.

Mayday-Ready Coordinates

In a distress call, the most critical information after "nature of emergency" is your position. Coordinates are on screen, ready to read into the VHF on channel 16.

Harbor Approach Verification

Entering an unfamiliar harbor? Cross-check your chartplotter position against SkyLocation. Agreement between two independent sources means you can trust the fix.

All-Weather, Day or Night

GPS works through clouds, rain, fog, and darkness. When visual navigation fails, satellite positioning keeps working — it doesn't need to see the horizon or the stars.

On our passage from the Canaries to the Caribbean, SkyLocation was our backup position source the entire crossing. Independent of our nav system, its own battery, always available. When our chartplotter acted up on day 9, we had a verified position in seconds.

— SkyLocation User

Frequently Asked Questions

How does SkyLocation compare to a dedicated marine GPS?
Will GPS accuracy be better offshore than near shore?
How should I protect my phone from saltwater?
Can I use SkyLocation for coastal racing or regattas?
How do I include my position in a VHF radio distress call?
Should I still carry paper charts?

Ready to try SkyLocation?

Free on the App Store. No account required. Works offline from the moment you open it.