Polly
Proud. Loyal. Always on watch.
Needs the Ship’s Perch.
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.
What it helps you do
A practical habit app, with a voyage attached.
- 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 join the fleet’s monthly Bearing when you want a bigger challenge.
- 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.
- 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.
The monthly Bearing
One challenge, the whole fleet.
Each month the fleet sets a 30-day challenge, and you choose whether to join. We call it the Bearing, like the heading a navigator steers by. The first is push-ups, from 30 November 2026, with a week’s countdown before it.
Pick a level: Inshore, Coastal or Offshore. Your Bearing Duty sits beside your five, outside your score, and shows each day’s target. Extra on a light day counts towards the total. Only what you log on the Bearing Duty counts; you choose whether to keep a Duty of the same activity during the month.
Finish and you keep a dated medal and a pennant for your Cabin. When everyone in your convoy who entered finishes, the convoy earns a pennant of its own. The fleet sees only how many entered and finished, never names.
Thirty days on, seven days off. Joining is free and never costs Merit, miles or Doubloons; the reward is the keepsake.
- Inshore
- 600
- Coastal
- 1,200
- Offshore
- 2,000
Push-ups over 30 days, by level
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, flash the Aldis lamp or run the Duty timer. Partly done still counts, finishing counts in full, and going beyond earns a little more.
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 entry, before you confirm it.
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.
Merit is your cargo. Each Watch you stand loads it into your hold, and it counts once it’s delivered: round a chapter mark or make landfall and the hold is banked in your Log. Delivered Merit raises your level and, in port, your rank, from Deckhand to Master, and pays 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 simply earns nothing and slows your passage: nothing is taken from the Merit you’ve banked, and the miles you’ve sailed stay where they are. Every Watch is a fresh start.
Want the stakes? Turn on Strict articles and missed Duties are fined from banked Merit again, with a Bosun’s Pardon to buy a fine back.
- Watches in full
- 6
- Miles
- 1,247
- Merit banked
- 350
One week in a Passage Log
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, celebrated when you make landfall.
- Stand your Watch
- Make way
- Round each chapter
- Make landfall
A living sea changes with the time of day. The charts are a game, not for navigation.
Landfall, on time and with a bonus.
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.”
- 01 Form a convoy Up to eight ships, or join a friend’s with its six-letter code.
- 02 Be seen Your convoy sees your bells and miles, and your Duties too unless you switch sharing off.
- 03 Signal A message of your own, up to 180 characters, read in the app.
More to do together.
Take on the monthly Bearing together: your convoy sees how each entrant is going, and when everyone who entered finishes, the convoy earns a pennant. Challenge one sailor to a match race over one, three or seven Watches. Or challenge your friends with a Convoy Duty: you take turns setting the group a quick task. Pick the type (get moving, a kindness, ten calm minutes) and The Helm picks the task itself. Then everyone’s porthole fills as they do it. Family Convoys let a household sail together, with Guardians, Junior sailors, Doubloon bounties and a shared Treasure Chest.
- Signals
- Monthly Bearing
- Match races
- Convoy Duties
- 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.
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.
The Helm runs on iPhone, Android and the web. No account needed to start, no ads, and your Log is yours to export.