Version history
Every version of First Mate, newest first, and what changed in it.
Coming up
Next
- Your programme's courses and lessons inside First Mate, in the same order as the training portal.
- A note when you reach a milestone, with your next step.
- A suggested next lesson after each one you watch.
Soon
- Fill in your homework and coaching forms inside First Mate.
- Update your card and see your billing from First Mate.
Boat features (not part of Get Set to Sail or Cruising Fundamentals membership)
- Forward or photograph a boat receipt and it lands in your boat log.
- Your passage tracks from your boat's own position, ready to share.
2611.1.0
New Hack Challenge dates, and chat that knows your whole boat.
What's new
- Boat log History has a Mark done button beside each open job. (boat features)
What First Mate can now do
- Web chat sees your Equipment list, not only your engines. (boat features)
- Chat reads your boat record in whole sections and names any section it left out. (boat features)
- Correcting equipment in chat works on long equipment lists, and chat asks which item you mean when unclear. (boat features)
- Chat saves where sail-drive spare parts are stowed, for Cruisers Concierge and Admirals Club members. (boat features)
What's changed
- The Hack Challenge entry page and voting site show the new dates: entries close 23 November, voting runs 24 November to 14 December, US Eastern time.
- Coming up in Version history lists boat features in their own group, marked as not part of Get Set to Sail or Cruising Fundamentals membership.
- When you ask how to reach Bluewater, First Mate points you to the team and the support route rather than naming individual staff.
What's better
- Equipment cards show the hours already recorded from Signal K or your service log, and the Boat log hours column uses the same reading. (boat features)
- The Documents screen explains that First Mate reads a few passages at a time, so ask about one section of a long document. (boat features)
- First Mate only says a vendor offers a service, product or price when Bluewater material says so.
What's fixed
- If you own your boat, chat treats the survey, closing and purchase dates in your plan as history.
- Blue Card discount documents are available to Captain's Circle, Cruisers Concierge and Admirals Club members.
2610.26.0
Easier sign-in, chat and boat records.
What's new
- Version history has a Coming up list, grouped into Next, Soon and Later, with a link to share your feedback.
What's fixed
- Signing in with Discord from a First Mate page returns you to that page.
- Chat's Send button works when you type before your account details finish loading.
- On a wide screen, opening Chat shows one message box.
- Cruising Fundamentals members can open the Get Set to Sail path in Learning.
- Home and Boat log show an overdue service even when another job on the same equipment is due later. (boat features)
- Boat log keeps older fuel and service records visible when you correct newer entries. (boat features)
- The Hack Challenge voting page shows its header logo on iPad.
- Light and Dark appearance choices work when your browser blocks saved settings.
2610.25.0
Passage plans use the right places and the right rain chances.
What's fixed
- Passage plans to the Dominican Republic no longer go to Dominica by mistake. A place whose name contains another place name now finds the right one. (boat features)
- Passage plans to Tonga now use the position of Neiafu. Before, the point used was about 168 nautical miles away. (boat features)
- Rain chances on web passage plans are shown correctly. A 1% chance of rain could show as 100% and tell you to consider delaying. (boat features)
- In Discord, if the storm check cannot be reached, the passage plan now says so instead of showing no alerts. (boat features)
2610.24.0
Share your plan, print your boat history and keep edits safe.
What's new
- Invite one partner from Your Plan to share your plan and Cost of cruising. Your chats stay your own.
- Choose what to include from the Boat log, then print or save your boat history as a PDF. (boat features)
What First Mate can now do
- Tell First Mate about generator service in chat, including on boats with twin engines. (boat features)
What's fixed
- When two edits to your boat systems happen at once, both are kept instead of one overwriting the other. (boat features)
2610.22.0
Chat keeps your service dates and files work on the right equipment.
What's fixed
- When you tell First Mate a service was done on an earlier date, it saves that date and counts the next service from it. (boat features)
- First Mate no longer files work under a different item that only shares a word with it, or under the other side of the boat. If it is not sure which item you mean, it asks, or saves the entry with your own words. (boat features)
- If First Mate cannot save a reply to your chat history, it keeps the reply on screen and tells you.
2610.18.0
Voice dictation works on iPhone.
What's fixed
- Voice dictation in chat works on iPhone, in Safari and Chrome.
2610.17.0
Example entries for the Best Cruising Hack Challenge.
What's new
- The Hack Challenge page shows example entries from the BWC Adventures team, to give you ideas. Examples are not part of the vote.
2610.16.0
Projects, web stowage for Cruisers Concierge, and clearer chat save confirmations.
What's new
- Track refits, upgrades and refinishing in Projects on the Boat log, with progress and cost. (boat features)
- Learning has a menu for each program, with Captain's Circle milestones and Cruisers Concierge stages, first-year check-in guidance and Life Aboard topics.
What First Mate can now do
- Tell First Mate about a planned or completed boat project, including progress and cost. (boat features)
- Ask First Mate about the SafetyWing health cover arranged for BWC members, with links to the member booklet and sign-up page.
- Paste the Signal K plugin's status line into chat for help with its connection, upload key or equipment matches. (boat features)
What's changed
- First Mate asks whether older service entries were projects. You choose which move to Projects. Home shows a reminder when there are entries to check. (boat features)
- The stowage map in the web app is open to all Cruisers Concierge and Admiral's Club members, and staff. (boat features)
What's better
- Signed-out screens have a Sign in with Discord button.
What's fixed
- Chat checks that an entry was saved before confirming it. If a reply fails after a save, it tells you what was saved.
- First Mate matches the equipment you name, including port and starboard engines, and asks to add missing equipment before logging maintenance. (boat features)
2610.15.0
Your Get Set To Sail milestones on Learning, and more ways to keep your boat log by talking to First Mate.
What's new
- Get Set To Sail members can see their five milestones on Learning, with lesson titles to start with and what each milestone involves. Your mission, budget notes and planned departure date appear where you have already saved them.
- On the final Get Set To Sail milestone, find the CYC Check-In Call with Lorelei and BWC Adventures if you are still deciding.
What First Mate can now do
- Tell First Mate what you spent and where, and it can record the expense even if you do not have a boat yet.
- Tell First Mate to add a to-do or save a place you visited. (boat features)
- Tell First Mate when a service is next due, in hours or months. Work you have done goes in the Boat log with its next interval; work still to do becomes a reminder. (boat features)
What's better
- What chat saves shows in a confirmation card, with an Open link when there is a screen for that record.
- Updated the software behind the web app with security fixes.
What's fixed
- Services logged in chat are filed under the matching equipment item. First Mate asks when the item is unclear, missing or the job may already be logged. (boat features)
- Logging a completed service can close its matching to-do. (boat features)
2610.14.0
Uploading the same document twice no longer makes a second copy.
What's fixed
- Uploading the same document twice, for example after a lost connection or a double tap, no longer makes a second copy. You get the copy already on your boat. (boat features)
- A photo too large for Add to my equipment no longer uses up your hourly photo allowance. (boat features)
2610.13.0
Chat keeps your question when a message does not go through, and grey-water tanks match their Signal K signal.
What's better
- If First Mate cannot answer a message and nothing was saved, your words go back in the chat box so you can send again. Photos and documents you attached come back too, and a document that already uploaded is not uploaded a second time.
- A photo refused in chat for being too large no longer counts toward the hourly photo limit. (boat features)
What's fixed
- A grey-water tank can now be matched to the Signal K signal most boats send for grey water. A holding tank is matched to the black-water signal. (boat features)
- Engine, generator and outboard hours that Signal K stopped reporting more than a week ago are asked for again on Home and in the Boat log. (boat features)
- A Hack Challenge photo entry sent just before entries close is either accepted whole or told that entries have closed. It is never left half saved.
2610.12.0
Send First Mate a photo or a document straight from the chat, and keep engine hours up to date in the Boat log.
What's new
- A paperclip beside Send in the chat. Attach up to four photos or four documents to a message, or paste or drag them in on a laptop. On a phone there is also a camera button. Hover over a button on a laptop to see what it does. (boat features)
- An Hours column in the Boat log, between Condition and Last service. An engine, generator or outboard that Signal K does not report gets an Update hours box. (boat features)
- Home asks once a week for the hours on any engine, generator or outboard you update by hand. (boat features)
What First Mate can now do
- First Mate can look at a photo you send and answer from what is in it: a part to identify, a fault, a label or a gauge. The photo is used for that answer only and is not stored. (boat features)
- Under a photo of an equipment plate, tap Add to my equipment. First Mate reads the plate, saves the details to your Equipment list, and asks you to check anything it is not sure of. (boat features)
- A document you attach in the chat is saved to your Documents page and read like any other upload. You can ask about it once it has been read, usually in a few minutes. (boat features)
What's fixed
- Signal K readings you have matched leave the list, so the signals still to match are easy to find. (boat features)
- Engine hours from Signal K or typed in by you now show on the Boat log and Home, instead of only the hours on file. (boat features)
2610.11.0
Match your Signal K readings to your equipment by picking them from a list, and add holding, grey-water and gas tanks.
What's new
- Latest telemetry on the Boat page now lists what your Signal K server has reported lately. Pick a signal from the list to match it to an engine, tank or battery bank. Each signal goes with one piece of equipment. (boat features)
- Three new kinds of equipment: Holding tank, Grey-water tank, and Gas bottle or tank. Their Signal K levels can be matched in the same way as fuel and water. (boat features)
What's changed
- The box where you typed a Signal K instance is gone, and the list replaces it. Matches you already made are kept. Add the equipment on the Boat page first, then match its signal. (boat features)
- The equipment kind "Head and holding tank" is now called "Head", because a holding tank is its own kind. (boat features)
What's better
- If your Signal K plugin is older than the current one, the Boat page says so, and First Mate in chat tells you how to update it when you ask. (boat features)
2610.10.0
Documents you upload in the app are now read, so First Mate can answer from them, and Home is a dashboard.
What's new
- Home is now a dashboard: what needs attention on your boat, your boat now, your plan, your cost of cruising and news from Bluewater Cruising, with the full list of pages underneath.
What First Mate can now do
- Upload a manual, survey or other paperwork on the Documents page and First Mate reads it within a few minutes, then answers questions about it in chat. (boat features)
What's better
- Scanned pages are read too, within your monthly reading allowance. If only part of a document can be read, its card says how many pages were. (boat features)
- The Documents page stops checking after ten minutes and tells you when a document is taking longer than usual. (boat features)
What's fixed
- Documents uploaded in the app since early September stayed on "Being read" and First Mate could not use them. They are being read now, newest first, and need nothing from you. (boat features)
- An upload that never finished now says so and asks you to upload it again, instead of waiting for ever. (boat features)
2610.9.0
The Boat page names the Signal K plugin that sends your readings, and you stay signed in for a month.
What's new
- Latest telemetry on the Boat page has a new section, Connect your boat with Signal K. It names the plugin to install from the Signal K Appstore: search First Mate, full name signalk-first-mate. It runs on a Victron Cerbo GX with Venus OS Large or a Raspberry Pi running Signal K. (boat features)
What's changed
- You stay signed in for thirty days, and every visit extends it, so if you open First Mate at least once a fortnight you will not see the Discord sign-in again.
What's better
- For the steps, ask First Mate in chat: How do I connect my boat with Signal K? (boat features)
- The Signal K instance field says what it is for and where its readings show. (boat features)
- When you do sign in, Discord no longer shows its "Authorize First Mate?" screen each time, only the first time.
2610.8.0
You stay signed in for a month, and Discord stops asking you to re-authorise First Mate every time.
What's changed
- You stay signed in for thirty days, and every visit extends it, so if you open First Mate at least once a fortnight you will not see the Discord sign-in again.
What's better
- When you do sign in, Discord no longer shows its "Authorize First Mate?" screen each time, only the first time.
2610.7.0
Enter your own battery system voltage, and a report you send from First Mate carries your name.
What's new
- The Electrical card and the add-gear form take a custom system voltage, any whole number from 6 to 60, beside the 12, 24 and 48 picks. Energy budget and wire sizing use it. (boat features)
What's better
- A report sent with the feedback button reaches the team with your Discord name and the name of your boat.
2610.6.0
The Documents screen tells you when a file is too large to upload, and how to make it smaller.
What's better
- The Documents screen states the size limit, 25 MB for each file, and shows the size of the file you choose. (boat features)
What's fixed
- A file over 25 MB is refused as soon as you choose it, with its size and ways to make it smaller. (boat features)
2610.5.0
On your phone, First Mate comes back to where you left off, and the chat shows which day each message is from.
What's new
- The chat shows where each day starts, with Today, Yesterday or the date, and marks the messages you sent on Discord.
- Load earlier messages, at the top of the chat, brings back older parts of your conversation.
What's better
- When you switch to another app on your phone and come back, First Mate opens on the screen you were on, with the message you were typing still in the box.
- When a Signal K engine or tank is not mapped to your equipment yet, First Mate names it, so the Signal K plugin 0.1.4 holds back only that one and sends everything else straight away. (boat features)
What's fixed
- If your earlier messages cannot be loaded, the chat says so.
- Battery charge from a Victron Cerbo GX shows on the Boat log's Batteries tab and in Latest telemetry on the Boat page, once your boat runs the Signal K plugin 0.1.4. (boat features)
2610.4.0
Battery charge from your Signal K boat reaches First Mate, and a tank or engine that still needs mapping is named.
What's better
- When a Signal K engine or tank is not mapped to your equipment yet, First Mate names it, so the Signal K plugin 0.1.4 holds back only that one and sends everything else straight away. (boat features)
What's fixed
- Battery charge from a Victron Cerbo GX shows on the Boat log's Batteries tab and in Latest telemetry on the Boat page, once your boat runs the Signal K plugin 0.1.4. (boat features)
2610.3.0
The Boat page takes feet and inches, and First Mate can walk you through connecting your boat.
What's new
- Cruising Fundamentals members see their membership badge on the Home page.
What First Mate can now do
- Ask First Mate in chat how to connect your boat with the Signal K plugin, or why a reading is not showing, and it walks you through it step by step. (boat features)
What's changed
- On the Boat page, length overall, beam, draft and air draft each take feet and inches in one box, such as 51' 8", and show them the same way. (boat features)
What's better
- On the web, First Mate puts the BWC training material it answers from in order of how directly it answers your question.
- On the Hack Challenge entry page, each kind of entry sits in its own box, with more space between the sections.
- The Signal K plugin, version 0.1.3, says why it could not reach First Mate, such as a failed name lookup or a timeout. (boat features)
What's fixed
- Length, beam and draft keep every whole inch, so 51' 3" reads back as 51' 3". (boat features)
- If you close the tab after First Mate has saved an entry, the entry is kept and you are not told it failed, so there is nothing to type again.
- When a Signal K mapping cannot be saved, the Boat page says why. (boat features)
- With the Signal K plugin 0.1.2 or later, one tank that is not mapped yet no longer stops readings from every other tank, and duplicate readings echoed over NMEA 2000 are dropped. (boat features)
2610.2.0
The Best Cruising Hack Challenge has its new logo, and the entry page links to the voting site.
What's changed
- The Hack Challenge entry page and the voting site carry the new BWC Adventures Best Cruising Hack Challenge logo.
- The Hack Challenge entry page shows the key dates with a link to the voting site: entries close November 1, and voting opens November 2 at community.bluewatercruising.com/vote.
- The voting site opens with Jack and Amy's full brief: what an entry can be, how long it can run and the entry limit.
2610.1.0
Chat stays dependable with unusually large boat records, and interrupted video uploads free their entry slot.
What's changed
- The Hack Challenge entry page now carries Jack and Amy's full brief: what to show, how long entries can be, the entry limit and the key dates.
What's better
- The Signal K plugin keeps unsent readings through a restart and sends them when the connection returns, without repeatedly queueing an unchanged reading. (boat features)
- Chat stays within its working limits when a profile, document, boat log, conversation or tool result is unusually large.
What's fixed
- A video upload interrupted before it finishes stops holding one of your Hack Challenge entry slots after ten minutes.
- Two chat messages sent at almost the same time are handled in order instead of starting overlapping replies.
2609.15.0
The Boat log is arranged by equipment, with an Overdue list to check before a passage.
What's new
- The Boat log has five tabs: Equipment, Fuel, Water, Batteries and Overdue. Each item on Equipment shows its condition, last service, next service and its history. Overdue lists everything past its date or its hours. (boat features)
What First Mate can now do
- On a laptop or tablet, choose where chat sits under Settings: beside the page in its own column, or as a drawer you open when you need it. Every screen is in the sidebar on the left.
What's changed
- Gear you tell First Mate about in chat now goes on the Equipment screen. Lines read from a manual or survey are labelled with the file they came from until you confirm them. (boat features)
- Anything that can be serviced can be recorded as equipment, including tanks and the hull. (boat features)
What's better
- First Mate finds older documents by their file name, so asking for "my old survey" works.
What's fixed
- Equipment diagrams taken as iPhone photos are now kept with your boat documents. (boat features)
- Asked how to add a partner, chat now points you to the Crew card on the Boat screen. (boat features)
2609.14.0
Water tanks on a Cerbo GX now reach First Mate over Signal K.
What's fixed
- Fresh water tanks from a Victron Cerbo GX, and any Signal K server that names them the standard way, now reach First Mate. Update the First Mate plugin in the Signal K Appstore, then match each tank once on the Boat screen under Latest telemetry. Signal K upload is still in testing. (boat features)
2609.13.0
Invite your partner onto your boat from the app, and talk to First Mate out loud.
What's new
- A Crew card on the Boat screen. See who shares your boat, and invite your partner with a link you send over WhatsApp or text. They open it, sign in with their own Discord account, and join. (boat features)
- A microphone in chat. Hold it, ask your question, and check the words before you send.
What First Mate can now do
- Hear the answer. Choose under Settings, Replies: text, voice, or voice only when you asked by voice. Tap the speaker on any reply to hear that one.
- Record your solar panels, alternator and inverter on the Equipment screen, with their output, and the energy budget uses them. (boat features)
What's changed
- Solar, alternator and inverter details now live on the Equipment screen, so each piece of gear has one place. (boat features)
What's fixed
- Asking for haul-out yards in one country now also mentions yards the map shows nearby that have no country recorded. (boat features)
2609.12.0
Connect your boat to First Mate with one plugin from the Signal K Appstore, and ask chat how.
What's new
- A First Mate plugin in the Signal K Appstore. On a Cerbo GX or any Signal K server, search First Mate, install it, paste one upload key from Connected apps, and tick what to send: batteries, tanks, engines, depth and position. Signal K upload is still in testing. (boat features)
What First Mate can now do
- Ask chat how to connect your boat and it walks you through the Appstore install and the upload key. (boat features)
What's better
- The plugin keeps readings on the boat while the internet is down and sends them when it is back, with the times they were taken. (boat features)
- The plugin tells you on its own status line what it sent, or what to fix: an engine or tank not yet matched, a key that needs replacing. (boat features)
What's fixed
- Chat names the real plugin and the real steps for connecting a boat, and nothing else. (boat features)
2609.11.0
First Mate now tells you which version you are running, and the energy budget reads your battery bank's size, voltage and chemistry.
What's new
- A version line on the More screen. Tap it to read the full history of what has changed, release by release.
- Your battery bank has a voltage (12, 24 or 48V) and a chemistry: lithium, AGM, flooded or gel. Set both on the Boat screen or when you add gear, and both show on the bank's card. (boat features)
What First Mate can now do
- Estimate the cost of cruising in chat, and see the figures drawn on screen.
- Work out an energy budget or size a wire run, and see the same. (boat features)
- The energy budget uses your bank's amp-hours, voltage and chemistry, and tells you whether it is enough to get you through the night. (boat features)
What's changed
- Asking about a passage in chat opens the planner on the web, where the chart and the numbers are. (boat features)
What's better
- More of your answers come straight from BWC's own training and guides.
- Passage plans use your boat's draft, so shoal warnings and reroutes around obstacles work. (boat features)
- A wire recommendation names its fuse. (boat features)
What's fixed
- You can add a boat from the web. (boat features)
- A battery bank's capacity is read as amp-hours. (boat features)
- Numbers you type are confirmed in both units, and kept as you entered them.
- Saving gear in chat refreshes the Equipment list beside it. (boat features)
- When a country filter hides haul-out yards, First Mate says so. (boat features)
- Document search covers the boats you are on. (boat features)
- A telemetry reading First Mate does not recognise is skipped, and the rest still show. (boat features)
- A cancelled voice note is not sent, and Escape closes one thing at a time.
- If we cannot check your membership, First Mate says so.
- During an outage First Mate says it cannot check right now.
- Your theme follows your device until you choose one yourself.