Water Explorer is a web application designed to assist boaters navigating the UK's inland waterways. It helps in three key areas: navigation, keeping a diary/blog of your journey and points of interest finder.

This web application is not a 'sat nav' for the canals - but it can take advantage of this technology. It's designed to be used whilst on your boat, through mobile Internet access, mobile phones or custom hardware tracking devices. By integrating these features, it opens up many opportunities.

• Location finding, based on bridge, place or lock
• Recording distance travelled (mileage, locks, hours)
• Percentage of canal network system travelled (total distance & time)
• Automatically generating 'blogs' for your journey.
• Find interesting places, pubs and restaurants near to you with ratings from others.
• Share your own favourite places and rate other peoples on quality, price and location.
• Calculating time of arrival
• Friends and family can track your progress (in real time) using Google Earth and this website - great for overseas visitors
• Upload photos of your journey and automatically attach them to where you took them (Geo-tagging)
• Locate your boating friends and where they are - great for meeting up at a set location or seeing if you will meet soon
• Generate Ordnance Survey grid coordinates - useful for emergency services or when using paper based maps.
• Eventually, a "black box" device can be installed on your boat giving you access to this site and also security in knowing where your boat is at any particular moment. Ideal for hire companies.

Your privacy is always protected, only journeys and your location will be disclosed to people you want to share the information with.

This site is still experimental and features listed are not necessarily available at this time