Systems and methods for orienting a marine vessel to enhance available thrust

A method for orienting a marine vessel, comprising:

• providing a plurality of marine propulsion devices coupled to the marine vessel;
• selecting a global position of the marine vessel;
• determining an actual heading of the marine vessel in the global position;
• providing a control device having a memory and a programmable circuit, wherein the control device controls operation of the plurality of marine propulsion devices in first and second modes;
• operating the control device in the second mode to
• (a) control operation of the plurality of marine propulsion devices to maintain the global position of the marine vessel;
• (b) calculate a direction of a thrust vector associated with the plurality of marine propulsion devices, which is necessary to maintain the global position of the marine vessel;
• and
• (c) control operation of the plurality of marine propulsion devices to change the actual heading of the marine vessel to align the direction of the thrust vector and the actual heading;
• selecting between the first and second modes of operation wherein in the second mode the control device controls operation of the plurality of marine propulsion devices to change the actual heading of the marine vessel to align the thrust vector and the actual heading and in the first mode the control device does not control operation of the plurality of marine propulsion devices to change the actual heading of the marine vessel to align the thrust vector and the actual heading;
• controlling operation of the marine propulsion devices in both of the first and second modes to maintain the selected global position of the marine vessel;
• and
• determining with a global position sensor that the control device in the first mode is unable to maintain the global position of the marine vessel and thereafter automatically activating the second mode.