IMPORTANT NOTE: This program was produced in association with the River Murray Boat Owners Association (RMBOA). The RMBOA is a group who enjoy the Murray for its beauty, wildlife, vegetation, recreational qualities and priceless value to our country. If you landed here from the RMBOA website, please click on the RMBOA logo above to return to the RMBOA website. If you arrived here by another means, you can still click on the logo to learn more about the RMBOA and how it can assist with your travels on the River Murray - the third longest navigable river in the world.
The Brigadoon River Murray Trip Calculator is used to estimate travelling time and the use of resources such as fuel, gas and water for a trip along the Murray River in South Australia and into New South Wales. Any information about your boat and/or trip are only used and stored locally on your compute for reuse, so saving your information does not represent a privacy risk. However, you can use this program without saving any data about your boat or the trip you are planning.
Initially, you can just use the default parameters on the setup page to see how the program works. To do this select the "Set Up" tab above. On the top part of the screen, information about your vessel can be entered. Saved into can be reloaded by entering the Vessel Identification and pressing the "Load Info" button. Where a feature is not required, such as water, gas or black water simply set all values to 0. The results page will just show red columns with 0 on each cell. If you vessel is too tall to pass under the Paringa Bridge without it being raised, check the "Requires Lifting Bridges Raised" checkbox.
Below the boat information is the trip information. The "Trip Identification" value is not required unless you save the information using the "Save Trip Info" button. Unlike the previous version of the trip calculator, this one provides the estimated data and time at each location. To do this, it needs to know the date when the voyage starts and the usual cast off time. The trip information allows the user to modify the upstream and downstream speed and fuel consumption which becomes significant during times of high river flow. A suggestion button is provided to give examples of what may be needed with various flow ranges, but this may not suit your vessel and you are responsible for determining the appropriate values and using them.
Before selecting the "Start Location" and the "End Location" of your trip, decide whether you want to include all of the 2km markers in your list of locations and set the "include km Markers" accordingly. If you change this checkbox after setting your start and end locations, they will be reset as the list of available start and end locations will change. If you select "Round Trip Voyage", the list of locations will show not only list of locations from the start location to the end locations, it will also show include the list of locations from the end location back to the start location. Once you made you settings, you can look at the trip plan by selecting the "Begin Trip Calculation" button at the page.
At the top of this page are fields where the number of people on-board can be set, along with the price of the vessel's fuel and the cost of a "swap and go" gas bottle. This program using the BBQ gas bottle as the standard size for gas on the trips as it is unlikely that boats with multiple 45kg bottles will attempt to swap gas bottles on a voyage, while is common for the BBQ bottles to be swapped due to their smaller capacity and size. It should be noted that the program will not update the gas unless at least the capacity of a bottle has been used - people don't tend to swap half-full gas bottles.
The trip table lists the following items:
Date Time: The date/time that it is estimated that the vessel depart from the location. The departure time is shown as it gives an indication of the times used at a site for refuelling, etc. Mooring Nights: A spinner to select the number of nights to spend at this location. Note that this is missing at Starting and Ending Locations, Locks and Lifting Bridges. Location: The name of the location. This can either be the location name (Renmark, Berri, etc), or it can be on of the river distance markers (222km, 560km, etc). If the colour is blue, it is a hyperlink to related information about the location. Fuel: This column identifies locations where fuel can be purchased. Green = On the River, Yellow = Nearby, and Red = further away, Selecting the checkbox will indicate that you intend to refuel your vessel. Gas: This column identifies locations where gas bottles can be exchanged (Swap 'N' Go). The same colour scheme applies to the proximity to the river. Water: This column indicates locations where potable (drinkable) water can be obtained. Blackwater: This table indicated where blackwater can be pumped ouot or dumped. NOTE: Only cassette blackwater can be dumped anywhere but at the riverside Waste Disposal Stations. Leg Distance: The distance in kilometres (km) from the previous location to this location. Total Distance: The total distance in km on the voyage so far. Leg Fuel Used: The amount of fuel in litres (l) to travel from the last location to the next location. Total Fuel Used: Total amount of fuel (l) used on the voyage so far. Fuel Left: The amount of fuel (l) still left on the vessel. Gas Left: The amount of gas in kilograms (kg) still left on the vessel. Water Left: The amount of potable water(l) still left on-board. BWater Left: The blackwater capacity (l) still available on-board. Cost: The estimated cost of the trip so far.
When options, such as mooring nights, fuel purchases and pump-outs have been selected, the table can be updated by selecting the "Recalculate Trip" button.