Solano route mode: preparing an outing at sea with hour-by-hour weather

1. What route mode does

Analysing the weather at a fixed point is one thing. But underway you are not standing still: you cross different areas at different times. A strong-wind corridor at Cap Sicié may be calm two hours earlier if you pass through in the early morning.

Solano's route mode answers this question: what weather will I encounter along my whole itinerary, hour by hour?

The principle: you draw waypoints on the map, you enter a travel speed and a departure time, and Solano computes when you'll be at each point. The weather is then interpolated linearly between the waypoints for each available model — wind, gusts, direction, waves, currents.

      The weather is interpolated in space and in time simultaneously. If it takes you 3 hours to get from the start to a waypoint, the weather shown for that waypoint corresponds to what the models predict for that exact GPS point at that exact time.
    

2. Turning on the mode and drawing the itinerary

Turn on route mode

Press the "Route" button in the main navigation bar. The map switches to track mode — the cursor shows that you can place waypoints.

Place the waypoints

Click or tap each point of your itinerary on the map, one after another. Waypoints are joined by a blue line. You can move or delete any of them at any time.

Choose the speed and departure time

In the Route panel (at the bottom of the screen), enter your travel speed in knots and the desired departure time. Solano automatically computes the arrival times at each waypoint.

Map with a drawn itinerary and the Route panel — The map with a drawn itinerary (3–4 waypoints joined by a blue line) and the Route panel visible at the bottom.
Showing the speed and departure-time fields in the panel.

Importing a track prepared elsewhere

If you route with another program — qtVlm, OpenCPN — you can bring its itinerary into Solano: the "📁 Routes" menu offers "📥 Import a track (GPX / CSV)". GPX is the preferred format, the one these programs export natively, with the route name; CSV is accepted for spreadsheet exports (two columns, latitude and longitude).

A very detailed route is simplified to 200 points, keeping the start and finish, so the table stays readable. The imported track then becomes an ordinary Solano route: you can save it, associate it with a logbook voyage and freeze its forecasts for the passage.

3. The three weather views

The Route panel offers three ways to visualise the weather along your itinerary. A toggle at the top of the panel switches between them.

📊 Compact view — default

A condensed table: 2 to 3 thin rows per model (wind, direction, gusts, wave height depending on availability), coloured by intensity. Ideal for a quick look at the whole route.

📈 Curves view

Recharts charts synchronised across models. A left sidebar lets you pick the variable to display (wind, gusts, waves…) and filter models. The curves of all models are overlaid and synchronised — scrolling one view scrolls the others.

📋 Expanded view

A full table with every variable shown as coloured pills for each model. More verbose, useful for an exhaustive read before an important departure.

Curves view with the parameter selector and synchronised charts — The Curves view with the parameter selector on the left and the synchronised charts.

The "Thunderstorm risk" band along the track

Above the table, a thunderstorm band sums up the convective risk all along the route. It reads from left (departure) to right (arrival): one coloured cell per computation point, evaluated at the position and the time the boat will be there — not an illegible point-by-point grid. The expandable detail lists the at-risk points with their ingredients (CAPE, CIN inhibition, Lifted Index, shear, lapse rate) and flags "loaded gun" situations. The index is anchored on GFS, regardless of the models displayed; the full mechanism is described in the thunderstorm-risk method.

4. When to leave? — finding the best window

One of route mode's most useful functions. The "When to leave?" button in the control bar starts an automatic analysis: Solano computes a score out of 10 for 7 candidate departure windows — from 6 hours before to 12 hours after the currently configured departure, in 3-hour steps — and displays them in chronological columns.

Choose your activity

Select your activity via the toggle in the control bar before starting the analysis:

⛵ Sailing — wind optimum 10–15 knots (dead calm penalised because there is no progress), sea comfort combining wave height and period, wind angle to heading valued
🚢 Motoring — light wind preferred (0 knots = 10/10), same sea comfort, no direction bonus
🚴 Cycling — increasing wind penalised, tailwind valued, rain and temperature included
🥾 Hiking — rain and temperature dominant, wind taken into account for exposure

For each candidate, Solano shows the key parameters according to the chosen activity: mean and max wind, gusts, direction, CAPE for sailing and motoring; wave height for sailing; rain and temperature for cycling and hiking. These values are given as mean and maximum over the whole route.

The score criteria

For each candidate window, the score includes — depending on the activity — :

Wind and gusts — thresholds suited to the activity
Sea state (sailing/motoring) — the height × period combination: a 1.5 m sea at 3 seconds is much harder than a 1.5 m swell at 12 seconds
Wind direction relative to the heading (sailing/cycling) — a beam to close reach is ideal for sailing; a tailwind for cycling
Sailability — the share of the trip actually feasible under sail (see below)
Convective CAPE risk — included in every activity, heavily penalised above 800 J/kg
Rain and temperature (cycling/hiking)

      For sailing, a 12-knot wind on the beam will score much better than a 12-knot head wind — and a dead calm (0 knots) will be penalised because you don't make way. When motoring it's the opposite: the less wind, the better.
    

Will you have to run the engine?

A window where you motor is not a good sailing window, even if the sea is fine and the sky clear. So Solano examines each hour of the trip and works out whether you can make way under sail. Two cases prevent it:

The wind is head-on — the angle between the route and the wind is less than 35°. You'd have to tack, which lengthens the route, or motor.
The wind is too light for the point of sail. The threshold depends on the point of sail, because apparent wind moves the opposite way: close-hauled, boat speed adds to the true wind and you make way in little air; downwind, the boat runs away from the wind, apparent wind falls, and you need more of it. Solano keeps 5 knots close-hauled and on a reach, 8 knots downwind, with a gradual transition between the two.

The share of sailable hours feeds into the score, and the result is shown next to it: "🔧 40 % (light air)" or "🔧 40 % (head to wind)" depending on the dominant cause. You immediately see that a window otherwise well rated will have you motoring nearly half the time.

'When to leave?' view — chronological columns — The "When to leave?" view: 7 chronological columns, best score in green, current departure in blue, key parameters by activity.

✓

Choose and confirm a departure

Click a column to see the corresponding full weather table. If the window suits you, "✓ Choose this departure" updates the time in the Route panel — the table recomputes immediately.

Advice: "When to leave?" ranks windows by the mean conditions over the whole route. Always look at the full table for the chosen window — a good average score can hide a localised wind peak on a critical segment.

5. Atmospheric and marine models

The models to use for route mode are selected from the TopBar (the selection bar at the top of the screen), not from the Route panel itself. You can turn each model on or off independently.

The display order in the Route panel follows a fixed logic:

Atmospheric models — wind, gusts, direction, rain, temperature
Wave models — significant height, period, direction
Current models — speed and direction of surface currents

Solano automatically detects whether your route is on land or at sea. Marine models are only shown if at least one waypoint is actually at sea — even if you selected them in the TopBar. A Clermont–Lyon route will never show MF-Wam, whatever the selection.

6. What to keep in mind

The weather is interpolated, not computed point by point. Between two waypoints, values are interpolated linearly — local effects (acceleration under a headland, the lee of an island) are not modelled. Knowing your route remains essential.
Speed is constant. The calculation assumes an identical travel speed over the whole route. If you wait in an anchorage or sail more slowly to windward, the arrival times at the waypoints will shift.
Route mode does not replace serious preparation. It complements point-by-point weather analysis — it does not replace it. Cross-checking with official marine bulletins (Météo-France, CROSS) remains essential for any outing at sea.
The "When to leave?" scores are indicative. The thresholds used are calibrated for standard conditions according to the activity. They do not account for your boat, your experience, or the specific constraints of your itinerary.

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