I have been fiddling around with how to use the live tracking screens of the boats that have tracking devices on board. Here is what I am doing: (And it makes more sense if you do this after the start when they have already started transmitting and are moving again. When you first open up the tracking screen before the start, it might show something that looks like a deck of cards all piled up at the checkpoint beach, especially in the case of the Marley teams, where there is more than one boat being tracked on the same screen.)

1.I open up the tracking screen. I immediately go to the “ladder” or “zipper” or whatever you want to call it at the left side of the map. It has a plus sign at the top and a minus sign at the bottom and a bar in the middle. I move the bar up until it is JUST BENEATH THE 7TH RUNG from the top of the ladder. To me, that is the best size to show the reporting points (bubbles) spread out enough and also to have an overview of where the boat is.

2.To find out where the boat currently is on the map, go over to the far left side of the your screen where the message board is. Put your cursor over the top message on the board, which is the last transmission from the boat, and the tracking “bubble” on the map will start showing signals like a horn blaring. If you still don’t see it because it is out of view on the map, LEFT CLICK on that same message, and the map will automatically reposition itself so the boat is on the screen with those blaring signals. (Takes a few seconds.)

3.You can do the same thing if you want to find out where that boat was at an earlier position in the race – just left click on that earlier message, and the map will reposition itself down to where the boat was at that time.

Tip: The blaring horn signal to show where your boat is can also be helpful if your boat is hidden behind another boat on the screen (or if that particular boat has some of its later reports hidden behind an earlier report).

4.VERY IMPORTANT: I found out that even if you keep the tracking screen open all the time, as I do, you do not have to manually refresh the screen to get the latest position updates – it does it automatically. This is a MAJOR bonus, because otherwise you have to re-do your map settings every time. So DO NOT REFRESH the screen.

5.Since we have three different screens for tracking right now, I figured out how to see pretty well how the boats are doing against each other even though they are not all on the same screen. Just open each tracking screen, set each to the same size (with the bar right under the 7th rung), and diminish all three so they are in a row at the bottom of your computer screen. That way you can open them one right after the other and see pretty much how the tracked boats are doing in relation to each other.

6.If you open one of the screens, and you don’t see the boats in their current positions, remember that you just go over to the message board and left click on the top message for that boat, and it will reposition the map to take you to where that boat is.

P.S. I didn't figure this all out by myself -- some of it I learned from the "Help" feature at the bottom of the message board.

And I still can't figure out how to make the tracking line appear. It shows for one of the boats but I can't get it to show on any of the others, although I think I am following the instructions in the "Help" section. If anybody figures that out, let me know, because I think that is pretty neat when it works.

IMPORTANT TIP: When you are looking at how two boats are doing against each other, you also have to look at what time each of them last broadcasted a position report, because that can make a big difference in where they actually are in relation to each other. They all seem to broadcast at different times and at different intervals. You find the time of the report (message) by left-clicking your cursor on the boat's black bubble for that particular position.

ANOTHER TIP: The message board at the left of the screen can be made to disappear or reappear. If you click the arrows at the top right of the message board, it will slide to the left. To open it up again, you click the little arrows up at the top left.