Pencil or pen?

[bgary]

Starting a new logbook. How do you write in yours?

 

[Christian Williams]

Mirado Black Warrior #2 pencil.

Permits changing "crapped pants and prayed" to "proceeded into gale whilst humming 'Doing the Lambeth Walk'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mc6XUus5IC4

 

[toddster]

There was recently an excellent, or at least envy-inducing article on logbooks in the Nov/Dec "Good Old Boat."
They recommend a multi-volume system, with separate books for voyaging, maintenance log, and engine log. I had come to similar conclusions myself, when trying to develop an electronic version.

Coming from a laboratory notebook lifestyle, I always use pen on written records. "What's laid is played." You can write in corrections, but it leaves a record of the correction. (It's not unusual, down the road, to find that the correction was the error. Or that the reason for the correction turns out to be the interesting bit.)

Personally, I like to have some kind of "form" to fill in repetitive data. And then a free-form area for general notes. The form is a kind of a mental prompt or checklist, and aids in later transcribing things into a spreadsheet (if so desired.) At least that's what I do in the lab. Still just mostly "good intentions" to do something like this for the boat.

 

[Jeff Asbury]

Starting a new logbook. How do you write in yours?

Smart phone. I post on Facebook every time I go out and Suckerberg saves all my photos and videos. Facebook now sends me notices every other day of what I was doing going back seven years now. Works for me. I also post a lot of my adventures on YouTube. If it's a really eventful trip I will type up the details and save it on my laptop. I don't really use pencils or pens for much of anything anymore. "Go Paperless" and all that. If I did ever keep a hand written log I think I would prefer a pencil so I could erase any spelling errors and miscalculations. :roll eyes:

I still have my Father's log from two boats he owned from 1966 to 1997. It is wonderful to go back and read those adventures. When I do start doing some serious cruising I think a digital voice recorder might be the way I would go. The future is now. "Captains Log, Star Date 1-27-2016".

 

[bgary]

I always use pen on written records. "What's laid is played."

That's what got me thinking about this. In past years I used a "real" (bound) log book and always wrote in pen, as it was viewed as an "official record". Especially when I maintained a USCG license.

These days, in different contexts, I'm more prone to doing things in a looseleaf binder so that I can add/revise/remove pages when my needs change. It is much more flexible, but makes it less... immutable.

I'm playing with something like this, and while I'm getting to know my boat it is really useful to have a bunch of sections for notes, questions, maintenance records, etc, it's probably more than I want to do on a permanent basis.

 

[toddster]

Smart phone. I post on Facebook every time I go out and Suckerberg saves all my photos and videos. Facebook now sends me notices every other day of what I was doing going back seven years now. Works for me. I also post a lot of my adventures on YouTube. If it's a really eventful trip I will type up the details and save it on my laptop. I don't really use pencils or pens for much of anything anymore. "Go Paperless" an all that. If I did ever keep a hand written log I think I would prefer a pencil so I could erase any spelling errors and miscalculations. :roll eyes:

I still have my Father's log from two boats he owned from 1966 to 1997. It is wonderful to go back and read those adventures. When I do start doing some serious cruising I think a digital voice recorder might be the way I would go. The future is now. "Captains Log, Star Date 1-27-2016".

That's interesting. Of course, what happens then, when you get out of cell phone range?
The biggest drawback, last time that I tried to set up an electronic logbook, was that I didn't take the laptop to the boat every single time. Or hardly ever, actually, unless I was going out overnight. It seemed like the boat needed its own dedicated laptop or at least tablet. But I haven't gone there yet.
I do take the phone with me every time. And theoretically, records kept "in the cloud" are where you are, all the time.
Unless you sail out of the cloud.

 

[Jeff Asbury]

That's interesting. Of course, what happens then, when you get out of cell phone range?
The biggest drawback, last time that I tried to set up an electronic logbook, was that I didn't take the laptop to the boat every single time. Or hardly ever, actually, unless I was going out overnight. It seemed like the boat needed its own dedicated laptop or at least tablet. But I haven't gone there yet.
I do take the phone with me every time. And theoretically, records kept "in the cloud" are where you are, all the time.
Unless you sail out of the cloud.

Most smart phones and tablets have built in voice recorders these days. When you save a audio file it also automatically saves the date and time. You don't need to be in cell range to use that.

https://youtu.be/0tH2PlM38u8