A planned course made of waypoints in order, the plan for where you intend to sail.
A route is a planned passage, made of waypoints in a fixed order. The straight stretches between them are called legs. A route is the plan; the track is what you actually sailed.
Planning a route
- Set waypoints at the turning points: harbour exits, fairway buoys, headlands to round.
- Check every leg for shallows, traffic separation schemes and restricted areas.
- Note the course and distance of each leg; together they give the total distance and, with an expected speed, a rough passage time.
Under sail, a route is only a guide: when the wind is against you, you'll tack on either side of the leg rather than following it.
Following a route
The chartplotter leads you leg by leg: it shows the bearing and distance to the next waypoint, the cross-track error from the planned line and switches to the next leg when you reach the arrival circle. Many plotters can pass the route to the autopilot.
Routes can be moved between devices and apps as GPX files, where they're stored separately from tracks and single waypoints.