The voyage cycle

Every voyage follows the same steps: a tanker waits in port, loads shares, sails its route, unloads at the destination and pays out. This page explains each step, what you can do during it and how long it takes.

The steps at a glance

The table is live: the times come from the game's current settings.

The states of a voyage

A tanker shows its state as a coloured chip on the map, in Routes and in its sheet.

A share you cancelled shows Cancelled.

In port

Every open route always has one tanker in port at its loading port. An empty tanker never sails: it waits with no timer. Its card says Waiting for the first share, and its sheet shows Loading time, the time loading will take once it starts. When a tanker departs, the next tanker of that route takes its place in port right away.

Loading

The first share, paid or free, starts the loading timer. The tanker departs 6 hours after that first share. Until then any captain of the same flag can add shares, and the sheet counts down Departs in.

A tanker also departs early when it is full. The share that fills it sets the departure to that moment, and the tanker sails within about a minute.

The terms of the voyage are fixed at its first share: the daily rate of the route, the days at sea, the multiplier, the floor and the tanker's capacity. See When the terms are fixed.

Sailing

The tanker sails for exactly the route's number of days and arrives at the same UTC time of day it left. The sheet counts down Arrives in. From now on, shares can no longer be bought or cancelled. On the map the tanker moves along its route line.

Arrival and the queue

Each destination port has 3 berths, shared by every flag and every route that unloads there. When a tanker arrives:

1. On a Saturday or a Sunday (UTC), it is Parked until Monday. See Weekends.
2. On a weekday, if a berth is free and nobody is waiting, it starts Unloading at once.
3. Otherwise it joins the queue: In queue.

The queue is first come, first served, by arrival time. The sheet shows Berth in with an estimate and your place in line. Nobody waits longer than 12 hours: after that, the tanker gets a berth even if the port is full.

Unloading

Unloading takes 6 hours from the moment the tanker gets its berth. The sheet counts down Payout in. When the time is up, the voyage settles.

Waiting for a price

A voyage needs two daily prices to settle: the destination benchmark's fix of the departure day and of the arrival day. If one of them is not in yet when unloading ends, the tanker stays Unloading and the countdown shows 0m. If the price is still missing 12 hours after the end of its UTC day, the chip changes to Awaiting fix. The voyage settles as soon as the price arrives. The price used is still that day's fix, so the wait does not change the amount. See Prices and daily fixes.

Settled

All shares of the voyage are paid at once and on the same terms. The payout goes to your balance by itself; there is nothing to claim. Your share shows Settled and the amount under Paid. The tanker disappears from the map. Later it comes back, empty, at its loading port when its route needs it again. There is no return trip.

Timing

• From arrival to payout: 6 hours when a berth is free, at most 18 hours when the port is busy, plus any wait for a late price.
• Waiting at the destination does not change your payout. The price is set by the arrival day, and the base yield counts only the days at sea.
• Each change of state happens within about a minute of its time. While the app is open, it refreshes the fleet about once a minute.
• A weekend arrival waits until Monday 00:00 UTC and then follows the same rules.

What the payout is made of: The payout. How to join a voyage: Buying a share.