LadyInBed
Well-Known Member
"Not looking at printing stuff off on the PC for a loose-leaf format as I'd much prefer something with a binding"
so my filofax diy job will be no use to you!
so my filofax diy job will be no use to you!
Best / favourite logook ?
- Thread starter Boo2
- Start date
prv
Well-Known Member
Nope
For navigational purposes on something like a cross-Channel passage, I have an A5 spiral-bound pad that I work out tides and courses etc in. I then plot an hourly fix on the chart, with the time and log reading next to it. After we arrive, I tear out the planning page and rub out the marks on the chart. For coastal sailing, like our jolly to Poole and around the Solent this long weekend, I don't write down anything. If I drove to Poole I wouldn't be generating paperwork, I don't see any reason to do so on the boat.
I can see the appeal of a narrative log, more like a diary or blog, to look back on in the future. But it seems I'm not someone who does that.
Also please note that this post isn't meant to be telling anyone else what they should do
Pete
Crowblack
Well-Known Member
Thank goodness Vic and Pete posted otherwise I'd have felt inadequate !
Pretty much do what Pete does A5 spiral bound with passage details and hourly fix with course speed and time written on the chart using a Yeoman.
I don't keep a "proper" log but do take the passage details home and write up (for my own consumption) a Blogger blog - really more as a walk down memory lane than an official log.
Pretty much do what Pete does A5 spiral bound with passage details and hourly fix with course speed and time written on the chart using a Yeoman.
I don't keep a "proper" log but do take the passage details home and write up (for my own consumption) a Blogger blog - really more as a walk down memory lane than an official log.
Tricia
Well-Known Member
We don't keep an official log, I keep a journal and use whatever I can find locally. Sometimes I buy notebook because I like the cover other times, like now, I use exercise books.
If we are using paper charts then distance, milage etc gets written directly onto to chart, but I also write our position and milage at the start of each days entry. At the end of the passage I write our total milage at the end of the last entry for the passage. Tidal and weather info gets written up in the body of the journal. The only time anyone has offically wanted to see this was in India, and Rob told them they couldn't as it was more of a personal diary and probably contained some very rude words directed at him.
I have used page a day diaries but then I end up writing all over the page, in the margins and around the date in really tiny writing which is all but illegible.
If we are using paper charts then distance, milage etc gets written directly onto to chart, but I also write our position and milage at the start of each days entry. At the end of the passage I write our total milage at the end of the last entry for the passage. Tidal and weather info gets written up in the body of the journal. The only time anyone has offically wanted to see this was in India, and Rob told them they couldn't as it was more of a personal diary and probably contained some very rude words directed at him.
I have used page a day diaries but then I end up writing all over the page, in the margins and around the date in really tiny writing which is all but illegible.
Robin
Well-Known Member
Nope
For navigational purposes on something like a cross-Channel passage, I have an A5 spiral-bound pad that I work out tides and courses etc in. I then plot an hourly fix on the chart, with the time and log reading next to it. After we arrive, I tear out the planning page and rub out the marks on the chart. For coastal sailing, like our jolly to Poole and around the Solent this long weekend, I don't write down anything. If I drove to Poole I wouldn't be generating paperwork, I don't see any reason to do so on the boat.
I can see the appeal of a narrative log, more like a diary or blog, to look back on in the future. But it seems I'm not someone who does that.
Also please note that this post isn't meant to be telling anyone else what they should do
Pete
WE had a Yeoman plotter and the Central Channel chart was permanently mounted over that and under a perspex cover on the chart table, so for serious passages we too recorded time, log and position on the chart more or less hourly ( On the perspex cover, sanded lightly to accept a 2 B pencil) We still did this when we went fully electronic with a colour chart plotter and C-Map vector charts. We no longer have that boat and no Yeoman either but fully electronic charts courtesy of Mr garmin with inbuilt USA charts and also openCPN on a laptop with all US charts free from Uncle Sam. Opencpn has a plug-in logbook recorder feature too that notes all the nav stuff automatically every 15 minutes or significant course change. The written ship's log is kept now out of habit as much as anything but as before the really interesting 'log to me is still the narrative one recording the days highlights and with pictures added too if poss. Over many years these narrative/journal type logs proved immensely useful in planning future trips and 205 years of thesewere passed on to #1 son when we left the UK in case he retired from big RIBs and bought a proper boat ( still waiting) The deck log I referred to in an earlier reply is really a formalised (as in neater) back of an envelope, used to note nav stuff later transferred to the proper log, without the smudges and finger prints. THe Journal narrative is now a leather bound spiral book from STAples USA which allows extra pages to be added and pges removed if needs be. WHEN we were stopped by UK and/or French Customs, they asked to see our logs and did look through them, once asking SWMBO what her entry one day of 'bang crash wallop I can get sick of this weather' meant (' F8 closehauled just for a few bottles of *******red' she said)
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Babylon
Well-Known Member
Unofficial or otherwise, it still sounds like you're keeping a record of things for yourself, which is a log.
My A6 notebook, Vic's yellow stickies, Robin's abraded perspex, Pete's screwed up bits of paper, Lady's filo pastry... whatever works for you for the passage or voyage.
Personally, I like trad nav and - with the memory capacity of an inline water strainer - the discipline of writing things down at regular intervals.
Robin
Well-Known Member
One reason I like the facility I have with openCPN free chartplotting program on my onboard laptop, that automatically records position, speed, heading, course changes data etc as selected by me to be recorded at intervals chosen by me and even puts it into a logbook format that can be printed off or simply saved. That and an electronic chart plotter that records our passage 'tracks' at least allows us to demonstrate our whereabouts at all times to any LEO that might want to ask as well as providing a start point for me to begin DR/EP navigating again in the event of total electronics failures.
But as a purely leisuree/pleasure sailor the logbook I value most is really the 'jounal or narrative one. I started doing one after meeting some delightful Belgian cruisers many years ago returning from a transat circuit who were keen wildlife observers and had a logbook full of their own superb sketches and photos of things they had seen on their travels. Mine are not so good as our Belgian friends but include prints made from 35mm film in the old days, computer digiprints latterly and also even postcards purchased wherever we were/are.
prv
Well-Known Member
If you've had a "total electronics failure", how are you going to extract the stored tracks from your plotter and laptop?
Unless you have something automatically printing a lat and long every hour, which seems unlikely. My navtex (which is also a nav data repeater) can do this if you connect a small printer, like a till roll printer, but I have no intention of doing so.
Pete
Robin
Well-Known Member
If you've had a "total electronics failure", how are you going to extract the stored tracks from your plotter and laptop?
Unless you have something automatically printing a lat and long every hour, which seems unlikely. My navtex (which is also a nav data repeater) can do this if you connect a small printer, like a till roll printer, but I have no intention of doing so.
Pete
The laptop has it's own USB GPS puck and can run several hours on it's own battery. I used to have a 12v printer on board in the UK but it got stolen in a break in and the replacement was a mains powered cheapo rarely used thereafter but could have been run off the inverter. Here too we have no printer on board now, but did have when we lived on board the mobo. NOT really irksome as I can write down stuff to the paper logbook when I do remember to from data that has been regularly recorded by openCPN or Garmin. If the whole lot goes phut I'll jump over and give the sharks a treat!
LadyInBed
Well-Known Member
My logs have evolved into three formats:
Coastal day trip (two or three days away to Solent, Weymouth or points between) which records Start/End time, Distance, Weather, Engine hrs, Crew if any.
Cross Channel which has the above plus Hourly fix, COG, CTW, DTW (W is normally Destination)
Then for cruises, a day by day narrative and pics which I put on my website.
Coastal day trip (two or three days away to Solent, Weymouth or points between) which records Start/End time, Distance, Weather, Engine hrs, Crew if any.
Cross Channel which has the above plus Hourly fix, COG, CTW, DTW (W is normally Destination)
Then for cruises, a day by day narrative and pics which I put on my website.
OceanSprint
Well-Known Member
A4 hardback note book for tide weather calculations passage plan and narrative.
Mad mutt on my phone for official log.
Mad mutt on my phone for official log.