Do You Count

[LoudMusic]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

Do you count the number of days you sail, the miles, days at anchor etc.? I read lots of post with "I did "X" number of ........".

I don't count. Yes I write down engine hours and dates etc in the maintenance log. I have a sail log with dates and where we went etc but no miles in it. I could if pressed go through that log for underway days, but I don't have a running total. Counting etc just doesn't matter to me to know.

I keep a google map of the boat's travels (among many other things in my life I document). I think documenting a person's life is a good way to remember what you've done, accomplished, and be proud of your life rather than just looking at the past five days and being depressed about it.

[Simi 60]

Miles on plotter
Hour meter on engine and genset (maintenance logged on google docs)
365 days in a year.

[Montanan]

I also count the bottles of beer remaining on the wall.

99 bottles of beer on the wall, 99 bottles of beer . . .
Take one down, pass it around, 98 bottles of beer on the wall

[rbk]

Chart plotter keeps track of annual mileage (written down in maintenance log at the end of the year), maintenance log book clocks engine hours, fuel and upgrades. When on substantial trips we keep a diary more about what we’re doing, things we’re seeing and our thoughts; this makes for an interesting read later on and something we can pass down to our kids (if they’re interested). We have a rule to write in it daily and I usually record the days mileage for interest only and does not tie in with maintenance or ship log. We’ve kept these going back to our canoeing days.

[Hudson Force]

I used to figure time and speed to determine a likely distance and an estimated position by ded reckoning that I could back up with lines of position with an RDF, but that was before GPS and my back-up GPS in a box. All that left me with lazy cruising on a cartoon highway!

[SV Trillium]

If you ever intend to apply for a captain’s license, a record is helpful for time underway greater than four hours.

Personally, I log even day sails because it’s kind of like a personal journal: who was with me, what we saw, conditions, etc. I enjoy re-reading it periodically.

Underway, I’m old school. I log every four hours, chart my fix, TVMDC, etc. I like knowing where I am and having a record.

No right or wrong way here - just preference.

Cheers,
Cam

[Bean Counter]

Yes. Have a ships log one for movement that record date, to and from port, distance, wind direction and strength and comments, usually about anchorage, people on board, calls to border security, bad weather, names of boats that anchor way too close (for insurance). Whilst highly unlikely to ever be called upon for legal or other purposes it is like a personal journal and I like to look back through it. Sometimes when identifying old photos we look at the date stamp and then the log to see where and when we were there. I enter all this hand written data into a spreadsheet.


For the maintenance log I record date, Brands and model of equipment, part number, oil type etc, hour meter readings on the relevant unit eg watermaker hrs, engine hrs etc, diesel fill ups and cost and man hours. I kept a spares and tools inventory as well. This was also entered in to a spreadsheet. This log is handy to show next owner what work has been done etc, and being a spreadsheet it is easily searchable so if you say searched for "filter" it would show up the relevant piece of equipment, model and part number for all water and oil filters used on the boat.



When living aboard full time there is plenty of time to do this, some play computer games or read books, I do that too but the log takes 5 minutes an entry if that. Some days I forgot and would use the chart plotter data to fill in the blanks.

[MicHughV]

Some time back, I tried to organize all my " stuff" collected over years of travelling....I got boxes and boxes of photo's...I got a whole box of photo's, just from the period during which I built my boat, many of them, black and white.

I don't recall how many different countries I've visited...something like 70 or thereabouts....and my paper charts, half of them photo copies....lord knows, rolls and rolls of them.

Back in the day, I used to send postcards to my family to let them know I'm still alive, my mother kept all these and placed them in albums, which I now have......all these boxes, charts, albums and log books are all gathering dust.

They mean a lot to me, but little to anyone else...to log more miles these days seems superfluous to me. I tried to interest my daughter in my voyaging life, but that was a waste of time. Trying to interest some of my land bound friends was equally fruitless.

Strangely, I'm not alone in this. Often, I'll come across a well travelled sailor, who has his/her own boxes and boxes....

A log book is much like a personal diary....it's good for the person recording his/her voyaging, but it means little to most other people. I'm good with this.

[hpeer]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

Do you count the number of days you sail, the miles, days at anchor etc.? I read lots of post with "I did "X" number of ........".

I don't count. Yes I write down engine hours and dates etc in the maintenance log. I have a sail log with dates and where we went etc but no miles in it. I could if pressed go through that log for underway days, but I don't have a running total. Counting etc just doesn't matter to me to know.

I am more like you. I can come up with a rough count of my miles pretty easy. SAWG at days on anchor.

I have something over 13,000. Maybe as much as 16,000 because I was just counting up major trips.

[JPA Cate]

I don't count, but Jim does. (Lucky me.) And, since joining CF, I have found it is a shorthand way of letting people what kind of experience sailing and cruising that I have had.

Ann

[Jim Cate]

Oh, OK... since Ann brought it up!

I started keeping track long ago, before the age of electronic navigation aides... back then we relied upon DR for keeping track of where we were much of the time, and logging miles covered and direction and so on were part of life. I never stopped the logging when the electronic bits arrived, and so accumulated miles just kept, well, accumulating, and I made note of them. Since we've lived aboard for many years I don't keep a record of days on board or days sailing... it has been full time!

I also keep a kinda ship's log cum personal journal, and have done ever since I had a boat beyond a day sailor. No specific format, and when not actively cruising, not religiously attended to each day. But it still gets certain data, like dates of changing water tanks and LPG tanks, equipment acquisition, boat and people names that we meet and anchorage . Engine and fuel data goes into a separate log book. Incidentally, I transfer the boat/people names into a data base. I often recognize a boat that we've met some time in the past and can quickly find out the crew's names and where and when we met them. People find that a bit flattering, it seems, and my rather faulty memory is backed up with more permanent data!

One thing I don't do is keep receipts or invoices for work or materials. I see such referred to here on CF as a sign that a boat has been well maintained, so I suppose that when we eventually sell Insatiable someone may be offended that I don't have it... too bad, but that's the way it is on board this yacht!

Maybe I'm a bit OCD, but it works for me!

Jim

[Paul L]

We keep a position log offshore with entries every shift change and an entry when we anchor.
Total miles comes off our speed instruments which keeps a running total.

Plenty of time to keep a log because we don't waste anytime categorizing every penny we spend.

[JoeRobertJr]

Another important measure of sailing experience is number of CF posts.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by JoeRobertJr

Another important measure of sailing experience is number of CF posts.

[Merriweather]

We keep a handwritten log of where we sail and anchor. We try to include something interesting about what was going on at the time. We also have a digital self written software program that keeps track of everything.