Do you keep a log book?

[Babylon]

I do, and fill it in for every passage no matter how short/long as a matter of habit.

Its just a cheap A6 spiral-bound ruled notebook with a few basic columns (Time, Eng, Log, Posn/Remarks etc) which tucks in the bino-holder just inside the companionway.

What do you do?

 

[Zagato]

I only pootle around the Solent so I don,t use it for back up passage location if my GPS packs up but detail the passage, times, tides, wind force and direction so that it is easier for me to work out and improve upon the same passage in the future. I add other information and use it also as a kind of diary!

 

[Sandy]

I have an RYA one, because I like the layout, for passages, a hard covered filofax that I gave to my late father for notes and engine stuff, and a blog that records my voyages. There is also a spreadsheet for recording mileages for the boat and crewing stuff.

 

[RichardS]

I have only ever used my log book on overnight passages.

Richard

 

[CAPTAIN FANTASTIC]

I have a logbook but I only use it on long passages, not during casual weekend trips

 

[ashtead]

I use a neat Adlard Cole’s version and always record even a short trip around the Solent but more to log activitivies on shore as much as on passage. When traversing the channel I log a position hourly as you never know when instruments might fail and you can then use to plot on paper charts if needed. Also record things like barometer and engine hours plus sails up etc. Again best feature is recording eateries ashore and cost etc and attitude of any bistro visited. Often there some useful port info you might want to capture to refresh memory in future years it reads more like a pilot book often than an actual log. I guess ideally it should read like a Michael Pailin notebook of travels.

 

[Gary Fox]

I use one strictly with crew on board, but singlehanded it's less formal.

 

[LadyInBed]

I don't keep a narrative log but do keep a filofax Nav log.
I also have passage planning data from previous trips - Local HW diff on Dover, Current directions, Passage distance, Optimal depart times. I see no point in reinventing the wheel! (It's all on my website)

 

[PilotWolf]

Obviously they’re required on commercial vessels so used to them.

I think it also nice to look back through the memories and comments. I’ll occasionally get my pilot logbook out and do this. The comments from my instructor are the most fun and seeing where I went.

W

 

[johnalison]

I used to keep a narrative log. At the end of the season I used to type it out to allow family members to read it and have it bound. Looking back at them can be entertaining even though much of it isn't. Family crises were mostly dutifully recorded, as well as a general account of the sailing. In recent years I have tried to resume this but can't engage enough interest to keep it going. I have always kept a passage log when going offshore, as in across the Channel, with most of the details filled in, log readings, course etc, with occasional narrative comments. This is never a work of art like some I have seen, but satisfies the needs of safety and the law.

 

[doug748]

I have one of these excellent things:

Imray Navigators Log Book Gael Force Marine

and record every trip, even if it is to the fuel pontoon.

Mind you, it only says things like:

Left mooring under sail 12h, daysail. On 18h. SW 4 Overcast. log 6m

Also handy for names of any crew or fish caught, wildlife seen etc. Pretty crappy really

.

 

[st599]

On the boat I skipper sometimes, it's filled out every hour, and has been for more than 50 years. I'd be keel-hauled if I didn't.

I also have a nice RYA leather one that has a page per day which I keep up - but it's got quite a few restaurant reviews, funny stories and photos in it alongside the weather and distance sailed.

 

[PhillM]

Yes, every passage. Short passages around the Solent it is just the basics for departure, arrival tides, weather, crew, etc and occasional entries when I have the time (when single handed in busy waters, it’s not my priority). Out of the Solent it’s kept every hour. Logging position is part of an hourly routine that helps to ensure that I am keeping a good lookout as well as taking regular short naps.

 

[Beelzebub]

I have several logbooks, though I must confess to not always completing them them in detail.

I've come come across pages which said something along the lines of:-

0900 Left Deacon's, Hamble
2300 Arrive Guernsey

or

20 Dec 1984

1300 Left Puerto Rico

22 December

1500 Arrive Mindelo

 

[Beelzebub]

Though there are others which are a bit more detailed:

10th January 1987

1400 Stuck in ******* ice Elbe estuary

 

[Uricanejack]

Yes,
usually filled out in the evening by wife or daughter. with important details like what we had or where we went, for dinner or pretty birds we saw.
had a bit of an unfortunate gap when we filled it before I bought another.
occasionally even put the odd bit of Nav info in it.
Generally has at least where from and to and who with.
All very casual.

 

[rotrax]

Yes, for every passage/trip.

First mate prints loose sheets and they go in a ring binder.

Start, destination, conditions and weather, sail used or motoring/motorsailing, time of arrival and how moored.

On passage position, SOG, COG and changes to conditions, sail plan are noted regularly, normaly hourly. Plus special wildlife sightings - saw a 4 metre shark on the surface off Bantry Bay. That was special!

By going back over our passages I have noted we travel between 1400 to 1600 NM in a five and a half month cruising season.

What the future holds until covid is under control I cant imagine.

 

[Kukri]

Well, I did in 1971, cruising singlehanded in an 18ft half decked day boat. Note the navigational blunder. God is kind to beginners at sea.

 

[prv]

We inherited a printed-form log full of charter crews dutifully recording every detail of their epic voyages from the Hamble to Cowes or Lymington . All seemed a bit silly.

I can understand the keeping of a "holiday diary" type log for family cruises, though I have no inclination to do it myself. I'm more likely to look back through photos as a memory-jogger. We also have a framed chart of the Channel on the bulkhead, with a little mark (they're actually triangles cut out of red electrical tape) on every port we've visited in this boat. In our first few years there were a lot of new marks added, naturally this has slowed down as everywhere within easy reach has been ticked off.

For navigational purposes, I only log anything on longer passages such as cross-Channel or the initial leg down to the West Country, and then I don't do it in a book. I plot hourly fixes on the chart using the Yeoman, and note the time, distance run, and course being steered next to each plot. In the - let's face it, massively unlikely - event of the GPS signals failing or being jammed in the subsequent hour, that should give me enough from which to pick up DR. At the end of the passage, these plots are erased from the charts before they're put away.

The only thing logged as a permanent record is engine maintenance, in a folder with custom printed pages. Information like "when was this fuel filter last changed?" has obvious uses six months later in a way that "what time did we pass SW Shingles on the way to Poole?" doesn't.

Pete

 

[PilotWolf]

Yes, for every passage/trip.

First mate prints loose sheets and they go in a ring binder.

Start, destination, conditions and weather, sail used or motoring/motorsailing, time of arrival and how moored.

On passage position, SOG, COG and changes to conditions, sail plan are noted regularly, normaly hourly. Plus special wildlife sightings - saw a 4 metre shark on the surface off Bantry Bay. That was special!

By going back over our passages I have noted we travel between 1400 to 1600 NM in a five and a half month cruising season.

What the future holds until covid is under control I cant imagine.

It was my understanding that they (commercial) couldn’t be loose leaf. My last company was and it was never raised in inspections

I had at least one page removed from loose leaf folder as they didn’t like my remarks.

Obviously makes it easy for renewal of licences too.

In the UK I expected hourly position reports along with wind and tide details on passage in case the proverbial hit the fan plus a physical paper plot on the chart. I was considered a dinosaur but it was how I was taught and if you’re my crew you do what I ask on watch.

PW.