Rivers & Seas Guide

Remember important places and find them again

A beautiful anchorage, a navigational warning, or the next place to refuel: bookmarks keep the places that matter to you and your boat close at hand.

Rivers & Seas on an iPad showing a map and photo bookmarks grouped by tag.
Your saved places remain visible on the map and are easy to find in the Bookmarks menu.

Remember a place when it matters

Bookmarks are your personal collection on the map. Save beautiful anchorages and harbors, as well as shallow spots, narrow passages, or other warnings you do not want to miss on your next trip.

They are just as useful ashore: a restaurant, pharmacy, boatyard, fuel station, sight, or quiet berth will be ready when you return.

Bookmarks appear directly on the map and together in the Bookmarks menu. Tap a place in the menu and Rivers & Seas shows it on the map.

Create a place or bring one across

The quickest way to save a place is directly where you see it on the map.

  1. Touch and hold the place on the map.
  2. Rivers & Seas creates a new bookmark there.
  3. Add a name and anything that will help you later.

Use the Rivers & Seas shortcut to add a bookmark at your current position—even with Siri. It is a convenient way to remember a place quickly while underway.

You can also open a single bookmark someone has shared with you. To bring across a whole collection, use an exported file or a prepared Rivers & Seas Places package.

Share a single bookmark directly with someone else. For several places, use Export to create a backup, pass on a collection, or move your places to another app.

What you can save with a place

A name is enough to get started. A few more details make the bookmark much more useful later.

Name and notes

Record why the place matters: approach, depth, opening hours, berth, or a personal recommendation. You can tap web addresses and phone numbers directly in the notes.

Symbol

A suitable symbol shows at a glance whether the place is a harbor, restaurant, fuel station, or warning.

Photos

Add pictures from your photo library or the clipboard. The first photo initially becomes the marker image on the map. Use a photo’s context menu to choose a different marker image later.

Tags

Tags place a bookmark in one or more groups. They also determine its marker color and help you search, group, and filter.

Use tags to keep the map clear

Tags work like labeled folders—with one important advantage: one bookmark can belong to several groups at once. A harbor might carry #berth, #restaurant, and #supplies.

Simply type a tag beginning with # in the notes, such as #anchorage or #navigation. Tap the tag there to choose its color. The first tag supplies the bookmark’s marker color.

In the Bookmarks menu, group or filter by tags. While underway, show only #navigation and #warning; when looking for somewhere to stay, choose #anchorage; for a trip ashore, use #restaurant and #sightseeing.

When you select several filter tags, Rivers & Seas shows every bookmark that has at least one of them. A bookmark does not need to have all the selected tags.

You can rename or delete a tag across your collection. Deleting a tag does not delete the bookmarks themselves.

Search, organize, and edit several places

The Bookmarks menu includes a search. Pinned bookmarks remain at the top—useful for your next destination or a place you need repeatedly during a trip.

Group the list by tags, sort it in different ways, or use your own order. With custom order selected, touch and hold a bookmark, then drag it to the position you want.

Choose “Select” to work with several bookmarks at once. You can assign a tag to all of them, lock or unlock them, and delete them.

Search, sorting, and tag filters help you prepare exactly the right group first—for example, every old bookmark tagged #holiday2024 that you then want to delete together.

Find and move bookmarks on the map—and protect important places from changes

From farther away, a bookmark appears as a colored dot. Zoom in and Rivers & Seas shows its marker photo or selected symbol. The color comes from the bookmark’s first tag.

To move an unlocked bookmark, touch and hold its marker on the map, drag it to the new place, then release it.

Lock an important bookmark so you cannot accidentally move, edit, or delete it. You can still add, replace, or remove photos at any time.

Bookmarks on Apple Watch

Bookmarks appear in the Apple Watch compass when they are within the displayed range. You can see their direction and distance without taking out your iPhone.

Turn the Digital Crown to change the distance and scale. A larger scale includes places farther away; a smaller one concentrates on your immediate surroundings.