Do you keep a log book?

[LadyInBed]

I keep more of a journal than a log

I keep a bit of a journal when I'm away for several weeks, then publish it with pictures on my website.

 

[sailingmartin]

What software are you using?

I use Tap Forms on an iPhone and iPad, also available on a Mac laptop I believe. It’s a very easy editable database, and extremely stable. Use it for lots of things.

 

[mainsail1]

I keep a Ships Log written up at the end of each day onboard and a Maintenance Log of all the repairs and replacements carried out on the boat. If one of the Logs had to go it would be the Ships Log. The Maintenance Log is invaluable.

 

[mattonthesea]

I keep a ship's log which starts the trip with the usual stuff: wind, weather etc and departure point. It then descends into occasional entries about slipping and dropping anchor! The number of entries is inversely proportional to my certainty of not being caught out by the elements; the more uncertain I am then the more entries. One of it's most useful entries is engine hours.

For longer than day passages I keep a two hour entry with all the other entries for pressure and DR plus narrative.

I then transfer this to a database, personal logbook I constructed in Access.

Seems like this is a fairly common variation.

Look back? Yes all the time - lose myself solo in the Atlantic for hours at a time

 

[Birdseye]

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?

Yes I keep a log on a loose leaf book with a pre printed page that I generate myself. I dont bother with doing so on a pootle round the estuary, just when passage making. The weather details are particularly useful as are the tidal gates. Position recorded roughly every hour.

 

[ashtead]

What’s is a useful if sometimes depressing ancillary to the log is a record at the end of each season of the costs of each longer cruise in terms of shopping, meals, etc and marina fees . Amazing how much a 2 week cruise for 4 to France and the CI can wrack up even if using the barbecue and not eating out at those hostelries recommended for the discerning yachtsman by some pilot book compilers.

 

[rotrax]

We have a very nice boat but a limited budget. We are definitly not profligate! We anchor where possible, cook on board and sometimes catch fish to eat. We spend 5 to 5.5 months aboard during the UK Summer.

Costs are about what we spend monthly at home including fuel and the odd treat/ takeaway/meal out etc.

Long stays in Marinas are out of the question. As are frequent meals out.

Despite that, we enjoy a good and healthy lifestyle when cruising.

Breakdown excepted, at the same - ish - cost of living at home.

Phew............................

Different, of course, if you are on a cruising holiday.

We cannot afford to be on holiday for 5.5 months. We are living on the boat.

 

[Roberto]

In N.Atl. longer passages (several days) if needed I also keep a "weather forecast log": longest US weatherfax charts are +96h, so the first entry page is dated 4 days from present time, with some notes about the forecast and/or boat routing/position (example "be south of XX-N); the following day I cross check and amend it with the +72h forecast, and add a new +96h entry; so on with +48 and +24h forecasts.

 

[Stemar]

What’s is a useful if sometimes depressing ancillary to the log is a record at the end of each season of the costs of each longer cruise in terms of shopping, meals, etc and marina fees . Amazing how much a 2 week cruise for 4 to France and the CI can wrack up even if using the barbecue and not eating out at those hostelries recommended for the discerning yachtsman by some pilot book compilers.

Bad idea. Can you imagine the grief if Senior Management gets hold of it? ?

 

[JumbleDuck]

Bad idea. Can you imagine the grief if Senior Management gets hold of it? ?

Best advice I ever had from sailing came from friends of my parents, who had a yacht on the Clyde. "Work out the cost per day, or the cost per year, or the cost per night if you must," they said, "but whatever you do, never ever work out the cost per mile."

 

[Babylon]

Yes, that would be as pointless as working out the cost or benefit of your whole life on a per mile basis! ?

 

[temptress]

We have logbooks going back several boats and over 30 years!

We keep a 'deck log' for most passages even if some are just short entries of a few lines or so. Some are epic stories. I encourage all persons on board to write in the deck log 'whatever they want' . the only rule I make is they should also put in the date, time and location.

We enjoy looking back at entries from a few days ago or a few decades ago. Brings back memory of the cruise.

On longer passages we record Lat/Long, Course, Speed, wind and sea state every 3 or 4 hours in costal waters and at least every 12 hours on ocean passages.

 

[JumbleDuck]

Yes, that would be as pointless as working out the cost or benefit of your whole life on a per mile basis! ?

It's not pointless as much as depressing, and really just shows that whatever sailing yachts are, they aren't means of transport.

 

[bdh198]

We have logbooks going back several boats and over 30 years!

We keep a 'deck log' for most passages even if some are just short entries of a few lines or so. Some are epic stories. I encourage all persons on board to write in the deck log 'whatever they want' . the only rule I make is they should also put in the date, time and location.

We enjoy looking back at entries from a few days ago or a few decades ago. Brings back memory of the cruise.

On longer passages we record Lat/Long, Course, Speed, wind and sea state every 3 or 4 hours in costal waters and at least every 12 hours on ocean passages.

One of the things I always record in my “log” (journel) is when things go wrong or when I mess up. I then write quite a bit describing the situation, what happened (or didn’t happen) and what I would have done differently (lessons learned). It can sometimes be quite difficult to be completely honest with myself when I’ve messed up and then to write it down for anyone to potentially see, but that is always one of the most valuable things to read back over.

 

[mattonthesea]

Best advice I ever had from sailing came from friends of my parents, who had a yacht on the Clyde. "Work out the cost per day, or the cost per year, or the cost per night if you must," they said, "but whatever you do, never ever work out the cost per mile."

I keep a log of all costs (and maintenance and fault list) at the back of the logbook. I transpose this to a spreadsheet for 'cost per week sailing.' As long as it is less than chartering then I'm happy.

 

[ashtead]

I hate to think what our costs per mile are but nowhere near as much as Wightlink hopefully and more reliable than the chain ferry hopefully.?

 

[Zing]

I don’t keep one. I used to do so, but now I don't see the point. I take photos, which are a better record of where I’ve been. I don’t need to record position as I have a zillion GPSs and its not that hard to estimate a position to dead reckon in the extremely unlikely event that I needed to. I record engine hrs in the service book. Log records are not needed for that.

A test of its usefulness is to ask how often you actually might or do look at it. When I realised the answer was never I stopped. Bad seamanship of course, taking cover now.

 

[temptress]

I keep a log of all costs (and maintenance and fault list) at the back of the logbook. I transpose this to a spreadsheet for 'cost per week sailing.' As long as it is less than chartering then I'm happy.

I don't want to know what it costs. If I have money I spend it. If I don't have money - I spend it