The Helm

The Helm

Steer Towards Your Goals

Every action leaves a wake.

Whether you want to make time to read, practise a skill, move more or keep a steadier routine, The Helm helps you turn it into a few small actions each day and see your progress add up. Then it turns that effort into a sailing adventure between real ports.

Coming soon App Store Coming soon Google Play

In a closed test now. How testing works.

The Helm's Watch screen in the morning: the ship Kittiwake at sea with 1,652 nautical miles made good, 498 to Fremantle and a Scheduled Arrival of Monday 26 October, a chapter rail from Sydney towards The Recherche, a moderate breeze, one bell of eight, Duties locking in 1 hour 35 minutes, and the first Duty cards, Walk at 3,750 of 8,000 steps and Read at 0 of 20 minutes, each with a Log button.

What it helps you do

A practical habit app, with a voyage attached.

  1. Act on what you mean to do Make time to read, practise the guitar, walk more or drink enough water. Turn the intention into a few small things for today, and a longer goal if you want one.
  2. See your progress See what you’ve logged, what you’ve finished and how it adds up towards your goal. After a week, the Log also shows which Duties you complete most often.
  3. Enjoy getting there Your effort sails a real passage, port by port, with lights and harbours to discover along the way and friends to sail with if you like.

Start with a goal

Know where you’re heading.

Start with what you want to achieve: read 10 hours this month, practise guitar every week, walk 500,000 steps this summer. Keep it in your own words, or give it a target, a timeframe or a few waymarks to pass. We call a goal like this a Bearing, like the heading a navigator steers by.

Link the daily actions that help, and each time you log one the goal moves along. Bearings are just for you: no one else in the app sees them, and they don’t change your miles or Merit.

Set one when you start, or later. You can keep several at once.

Your bearings: Play a favourite song confidently, in your own words; Practise guitar 80 minutes every week, 45 of 80 minutes this week with 5 days left; Read 10 hours this month, 8.22 of 10 hours with 11 days left; and Walk 500,000 steps this summer, 277,500 so far. Below, Add a bearing, Plan one for later, and Planned, Reached and Set aside lists, with the note that Bearings never change miles, Merit, Doubloons or how Duties count.
Details for the Bearing Read 10 hours this month: 8.22 hours of 10 for October 2026, 11 days left, provisional until each Watch settles; then its goal, timeframe, how progress is tracked (a total to build up, 10 hours), supporting Duties (all reading, counting) and its track and history, with Update and Mark reached.

A goal, its timeframe and the Duties that count.

Daily action

Small, honest steps, every day.

Turn the goal into a few things you’ll actually do today: a walk, twenty minutes of reading, guitar practice, two litres of water. These are your Duties, each with a target you set, up to five a day. Together they make up your Watch: the day you’ve set yourself, from midnight to midnight.

Log as you go: turn the Ship’s Wheel, slide the Sounding Tape, tap a measure or run the Duty timer. Partly done still counts, finishing counts in full, and going beyond earns a little more. When a Duty is linked to a Bearing, you’ll see how far each entry moves it.

You can change your Duties until noon. After that they hold for the rest of the day, so the Watch is what you said you’d do.

Stand your Watch.

Screen Time is something you enter by hand. The first 30 minutes are free; beyond that your ship sails into a headwind and makes a little less way. The Helm never reads it from your phone.

Today's Watch: 5 to stand, Duties lock in 1 hour 35 minutes, 13:35 until midnight and a Steady Watch bonus of 10 percent; Duty cards for Walk at 3,750 of 8,000 steps, Read at 0 of 20 minutes, Guitar practice at 0 of 15 minutes, Drink water at 0.75 of 2 litres and Social media to stay under 30 minutes, each with a Log button, then Plan tomorrow.
The log sheet for Guitar practice: counts towards 1 bearing and supports 1; this entry takes Practise guitar 80 minutes every week from 30 to 38 minutes of 80; the Ship's Wheel set to 8 minutes, previewed as 8.29 nautical miles and 13 percent of the Watch, with Discard and Confirm.

Today’s entry, counted towards the goal.

Visible progress

Watch your effort add up.

Everything you log is kept in your Passage Log, day by day, along with the passages you’ve sailed. If you get something wrong, you amend it rather than erase it, so the record stays honest.

Each Watch you stand earns Merit, which raises your level and, in port, your rank, from Deckhand to Master. You also collect Doubloons to spend on your ship and Cabin. All of it comes from the effort you log; none of it can be bought.

After a week of Watches, your Log adds a Chart Room. The Chart Room helps you look back at your progress, with counts, averages and comparisons with your plan. Any suggested changes to your targets are yours to accept or leave.

Stay the course.

Some days won’t go to plan. A day off you plan with Shore Leave costs nothing. A missed Duty costs some Merit, and if misses pile up your level or rank can slip, but the miles you’ve sailed and your goals stay where they are. Every Watch is a fresh start.

Watches in full
6
Miles
1,247
Merit banked
350

One week in a Passage Log

The Passage Log for the ship Kittiwake: this week, 6 Watches stood in full, 1,247 nautical miles and 350 merit banked; two passages, Melbourne to Sydney and Fremantle to Melbourne, both on time; then today's timestamped entries, including a walk amended from 2,500 to 2,250 steps with the reason “Counted the dog walk twice”.
The Service Record for Ellis Hart: rank Able Seaman, level 9 with 1,288 Merit and more pending until midnight, the next commission, Bosun, and totals of 20 Watches stood, 4,125 miles logged, 16 chapters rounded, 2 landfalls and 230 Doubloons.

Rank and totals in your Service Record.

The adventure

Turn progress into a voyage.

Choose a passage between real ports: Sydney to Fremantle, Halifax to New York, or right around the world from more than 150 ports. Every Watch you stand moves your ship along it, and the voyage unfolds in chapters as you go.

Arrive by the date you planned and you earn a bonus. When you make landfall, the ceremony shows how far a Bearing has come since you set sail.

  1. Stand your Watch
  2. Make way
  3. Round each chapter
  4. Make landfall

A living sea changes with the time of day. The charts are a game, not for navigation.

The Passage screen for Sydney to Fremantle, Watch 9 of 14: signal flags, a Bearings row with 4 active bearings and 1 planned, a chart of southern Australia with the route past Cape Leeuwin, a course of 280°T and an effective speed of 9.8 knots, 85 percent complete with a Scheduled Arrival of Monday 26 October, and the passage terms.
The landfall ceremony at Fremantle, on time: 2,150 nautical miles from Sydney, 10 Watches stood, 7 chapters and a +166 Standard bonus, provisional until the Watch closes at midnight, with the line “Your bearing: 203,300 steps → 293,700 steps of 500,000 steps” and Polly the parrot calling “Land ho! Crackers ashore!”

Landfall, and how far your goal has come.

Sail in company

It’s easier to keep your word when somebody’s watching.

Form a convoy with friends, or join one with its code. Everyone keeps their own goals, Duties and passage, but you see each other’s bells and miles through the day, and can signal a convoy member with a few words of your own.

“I said I’d stand my Watch today — and my convoy can see it.”
  1. 01 Form a convoy Up to eight ships, or join a friend’s with its six-letter code.
  2. 02 Be seen Your convoy sees your bells and miles, and your Duties too unless you switch sharing off.
  3. 03 Signal A message of your own, up to 180 characters, read in the app.
The Convoy screen for The Kestrel Watch: four small ships sailing in company at sunrise, 2 of 4 Watches stood today, two new signals reading “Saw you rounded Cape Borda. Fair winds home!”, and rows for Theo Brennan, on watch, and Ana Ruiz, Watch stood, each with a Signal button.

More to do together.

Race another convoy in a Regatta, scored by the share of each convoy’s ships that stood their Watch, so small convoys race big ones fairly. Challenge one sailor to a match race over one, three or seven Watches. Family Convoys let a household sail together, with Guardians, Junior sailors, Doubloon bounties and a shared Treasure Chest.

  • Signals
  • Regattas
  • Match races
  • Family Convoys

Convoys are optional and need an account, and everyone aboard, Junior sailors included, must be 13 or older. A practice convoy of clearly marked, simulated sailors lets you try it first. Your own Log always stays your own.

Cabin & companions

Your effort earns a life aboard.

Spend Doubloons in the Chandlery on fittings and furnishings for your Cabin, refit your ship in the Dry Dock, or take on a companion to keep you company.

Polly and Wolly each need their own fitting and their own food. Look after yours and your bond grows.

Polly

Proud. Loyal. Always on watch.

Needs the Ship’s Perch.

Wolly

Troublesome. Hungry. Keeps it real.

Needs the Dock Bollard.

Companions and refits are the reward — not the point. Doubloons never buy Merit, miles or rank.

Set a goal. Start today. Make landfall.

The Helm is in a closed test. Invited testers can install it today.

Coming soon App Store Coming soon Google Play

In a closed test now. How testing works.

The Helm runs on iPhone, Android and the web. No account needed to start, no ads, and your Log is yours to export.

About the test Support Privacy