A ship's log is a booklet or document used to record information about the vessel, navigation, and virtually anything else related to boating. Information such as sailing plans, GPS coordinates, ship sightings, and weather are often recorded in the captain's log.
Things that should be included in your log:
- Date.
- Names of vessel, MMSI Number & Call Sign.
- People on board.
- Time of each log entry (this may be local time, ship's time or UT - and should be specific clearly)
- Departure Port / Destination Port & associated HW & LW times and heights.
- Water Log (the 'milometer')
- Water Speed (log speed)
Commercial captains have been required to keep logs for decades, so the practice is nothing new in the maritime world. A log book is traditionally a medium-sized bound book or a binder. You can find them stocked at most marine stores and chandleries. \
Today, many boaters prefer to keep digital ship's logs cloud-based storage makes digital logs easy to share and almost impossible to lose. SailTies is the leading app for keeping all your sailing in one place.