Passage Mode — sailing, motoring, and engine hours

Passage Mode is how WatchKeeper knows what the boat is doing right now — and it's where your engine hours and fuel picture come from without you keeping a separate tally.

The four modes

Mode	When
Sailing	Canvas only
Motorsailing	Sails up, engine assisting
Motoring	Engine only
Anchored	On the hook (or alongside)

Set the mode from the Passage Mode page or the dashboard card whenever it changes; add engine RPM when the engine's turning. Log Book entries also carry mode and RPM, so your hourly log and the mode timeline reinforce each other.

What you get for the discipline

• Engine hours, derived — time spent in Motoring/Motorsailing accumulates automatically; the page shows total hours and the current session. This is the number your service reminders key off.
• Fuel picture — paired with your Fuel tank readings (Settings → Tanks), so consumption has context.
• Time-per-mode breakdown — how much of the passage was actually sailed vs motored. Useful for the log, the blog post, and the fuel budget for next time.

Practical notes

• Switch modes when it happens, not at watch change. The breakdown is only as honest as the timestamps.
• Forgot for three hours? Switch now — and note it in the Log Book entry. Precision beats false precision.
• Prefer to be certain offline? Mode changes made offline retry while the page stays open, but the bulletproof offline path is a Log Book entry (which carries mode + RPM and queues on the device) — see Logging offline.