Contract Countdown Widget for Seafarers

Ask an oiler at coffee time how long is left on the contract and the answer comes in days. Sixty-eight. This widget puts that number on the home screen, next to the weather the ship is standing in.

Day 01 is sign-on day

The count starts the day you join. That day shows 01 under ON BOARD, the next day 02. UNTIL HOME runs the other way, down to zero on the day you sign off. Both numbers move at midnight by your phone's clock.

Before you join, the card counts toward the ship. AT HOME is the days of leave you have left, AT SEA the length of the contract waiting for you. On sign-on day it turns over by itself.

Reliefs slip. The crew change moves to the next port, the flight is rebooked, and the sign-off date moves with it. Change the date in the app and it is saved at once. The count, the bar and your port list carry on from the new date.

The bar: seven short, one long

Under the numbers runs a bar labelled CONTRACT. Seven short segments, then one long one that is as long as the seven together. The first half of the contract goes by in short steps. The second half is the long blast.

Every seafarer has heard that rhythm on the ship's whistle at drill. Here it measures the way home.

25, 50, 75, 99

Four times in a contract the phone speaks up. On the morning you pass 25, 50, 75 and 99 percent, a notification arrives at 08:00. Open it and the app marks the moment with fireworks that you have to acknowledge, like any alarm. At 75 percent there is a thank-you from the 7S1L store.

If the phone was off that morning, nothing is lost. The app catches up on the marks you missed, in order, the next time you open it.

Ports and weather on the same card

The third number is PORTS. Count by hand with plus and minus, or let the phone ask "Alongside in Singapore?" once it has been in a port for 15 minutes. How that works, and why your position never leaves the phone for it, is on the port call counter page.

Above the numbers sits the weather at your position. Temperature, condition, wind in knots. Tap it for six days ahead. Where the forecast comes from is on the main widget page, and the setup guide gets the card onto your phone.

What the count is not

The numbers are a planning aid. They are not proof of sea service, working hours or pay. Your discharge book and the ship's records are. The weather is a forecast for a rounded position and has no place in a navigation or safety decision.

The widget also does not read your contract. For that there is the free Seafarer Contract Check, which holds an employment agreement against MLC 2006, and the Muster Board guide to red flags in a seafarer employment agreement. More tools worth the storage space are in apps for seafarers.

Crew questions

YES, WE ARE CREW.