See also the Logbook (v2.14.0) video tutorial.

Logbook - Register your location, weather, boat and crew details, operations-log records, etc.

TheBoatApp includes a Logbook module as the full registry of your voyages and conditions, fully searchable and shareable with your crew-mates. Allowing multi-user entries (i.e. by the crew), photos, etc. Including trip log (time, location, etc), weather log, radio log, auto-logging at predefined intervals, etc. Integrated with Google Maps and providing route tracing, to see your route over the map, also integrated with Windy for always having a weather snapshot!

Furthermore, the Logbook module includes the Operations Log (a.k.a. Maintenance Log), where all operations performed on your boat are being logged. This is done either automatically, when actions performed in other records (e.g. performed maintenance, completion of a task, etc), or manually registering an Operations-log record for some ad-hoc activity (e.g. bottom scraping, refuelling, water-refill, etc).

How to Access the Logbook

To access the Logbook, log in to TheBoatApp, then you may select "Logbook" from the left side menu where two options appear: "Trips" and "All logs". The Logbook is comprised of two main components:

• Trips: where you may setup a trip, defining dates, itinerary, skipper, crew, etc

• All-logs: where you may view all your logs, within or out of a trip

How to Create & Access Trips

Logbook is organised in Trips. Click "Trips" from the left side menu and then click "+Add Trip" from the main screen to register a new trip. This is similar to just opening your legacy paper-logbook to a fresh blank page and initiating a new trip.

You are now in the Add trip screen:

Here you may configure the respective trip information:

1. Trip Name: something short and descriptive for this trip (e.g. UK Sailing 2023, Southampton to Plymouth)

2. Boat: the name of the boat performing the trip

3. Start date: date of departure

4. End date: date of completion (can be an estimate or left blank)

5. Skipper: well… the Captain of this trip! If it is you, simply click “Me”, otherwise enter the username or full-email of the user who is captaining this trip

6. Notes: anything you may wish to keep a note for (e.g. a overall trip description, participants)

7. Route
   

   1. Point of Origin: port of departure

   2. Destination: port of trip completion (can be an estimate or left blank)
      

8. Co-skipper: the 2nd in command (enter username or full-email)

9. Crew: all boarded souls (a.k.a. passengers manifest)
   

Click "Save trip" to complete the registration

Your trip is now displayed on either Card-view:

or Table-view:

How to Register Log-records

Next, simply select your newly created trip from the main screen. You are now in the Trip-details view and ready to add log-records for this trip.

Map-view

The map-view window provides the following configurable view functionalities:

• Google Maps: your location in basic, terrain or satellite view

• Windy: view the weather conditions, of course centred on your location
  

Add-log

As you may see above the 1st log-record is already registered and it is the origin-point and the starting date-time defined for this trip. You have two (2) options to register a log-record:

• Quick-log: set the the date-time and location (either via a toponym or coordinates) and then click “+ Quick log”. This is the fastest way to add a waypoint & date-time as a log-record without going though a full-log screen

• Full-log: click the “Full log” button to add a log-record containing anything more that just a waypoint & date-time. You are now on the Add log screen, having access on all available log fields

Basic log

Go ahead and enter the basic log-record information:

1. Name: something short and descriptive for this log-record

2. Date-time: fulfilled automatically, however you may edit it manually

3. Location: there are three (3) ways to fill in your location. Select the one that suits your needs:
   

   1. Click the location-centre symbol (location-access should be activated on your device)

   2. Type and search for a place/landmark, then drag the marker to pinpoint your exact location

   3. Enter coordinates manually in the following format:
      

   1. Latitude: formatted as DD° MM’ SS" N/S
      

   2. Longitude: formatted as DDD° MM’ SS" E/W
      

4. Log type: There are five (5) types of log-records. Depending on what you wish to log, select the respective log-type:
   

   1. General: as the name implies, general information about the trip, boat, systems state, etc

   2. Weather: used for registering weather forecasting (usually obtained via HF SSB radio, Weather-Fax, etc)

   3. Radio: used for registering radio-communications (HF, VHF, etc)

   4. Social: used for registering some social activity (e.g. a restaurant/local-attraction visit, etc)

   5. Operations: used to register operational activities (e.g. refuelling, water-refill, maintenance, etc)
      

5. Notes: A record of any relevant events, decisions, etc, along with other relevant information/description of the current situation, for the specific log-record
   

General log

The General log type is the most extensive of all. Apart of the basic log-fields (see above), it provides a plethora of data-fields to book everything:

1. General
   

   1. Event: select the type of the event triggering this log record. This can be either
      

   1. Routine
      

   2. Course change
      

   3. Landfall
      

   4. Emergency
      

   5. Fault
      

   2. C.O.G.: Course Over Ground, as read from a GPS or derived from the course in degrees true between two actual positions plotted on a chart

   3. Heading: Compass reading

   4. Helm: helmsman when this log-record was registered

   5. Speed: speed through the water

   6. S.O.G.: Speed Over Ground, as read from a GPS or derived from the distance/time between actual positions plotted on a chart

   7. Trip log: accumulated distance travelled through the water, up to the current log record, as taken from the so far log records (waypoints)

   8. Depth: the depth at the position of this log-record

   9. Sails: information about the sailing-plan (sails used, reefing, etc)
      

2. Weather
   

   1. Wind
      

   1. Speed: true wind speed
      

   2. Direction: true wind direction
      

   2. Sky: estimate of cloud cover given as a fraction, where 0/8 represents a clear sky and 8/8 represents total cloud cover

   3. Precipitation: precipitation type
      

   1. Drizzle
      

   2. Rain
      

   3. Sleet
      

   4. Snow
      

   5. Graupel
      

   6. Hail

   4. Sea state: state of the sea in Beaufort scale (1-12)

   5. Visibility: the degree of atmospheric clearness (estimated distance of visibility). To be fulfilled for times when visibility conditions are less than optimal

   6. Temperature
      

   1. Air
      

   2. Sea
      

   7. Atmospheric pressure: barometric air pressure
      

3. Systems
   

   1. Engine(s): you may add/remove an engine using the “+ Add” button
      

   1. State: whether the engine operates or not
      

   2. Usage: accumulated hours of operation, at the time of this log record
      

   3. RPM: Rotations per minute, at the time of this log record
      

   4. Checks
      

      1. Fuel: fuel supply system check (fuel-line, fuel-pump, etc.
         

      2. Oil: oil level check
         

      3. Water: cooling water circulation
         

      4. Exhaust: exhaust’s smooth operation

   2. Diesel Generator: as above for the main engine(s)

   3. Other
      

   1. Battery 1: voltage of battery bank 1 (usually for engine)
      

   2. Battery 2: voltage of battery bank 2 (usually for service)
      

   3. Water: quantity of water
      

   4. Fuel: quantity of fuel
      

   5. Gas: quantity of gas
      

   6. Checks
      

   1. Bilge: confirmation of a trouble-free bilge (low-level water, operational bilge-pump, etc.
      

4. Files: attach documents/photos/videos and any other files relevant to the respective log-record (e.g. a photo/video of a damage, malfunction, etc)

5. Costs: here below you may see the Costs related fields and their functionality
   

   1. Amount & Currency: the cost (amount paid). The respective currency is automatically selected based on the user’s General Settings, however you may select manually another currency if needed for just this cost booking

   2. Supplier: the store/vendor from where you made this purchase

   3. Quantity: the newly purchased quantity

   4. VAT/GST rate: the percentage of applicable Value Added Tax (VAT) or Goods & Services Tax (GST). The respective tax amount is calculated and displayed automatically below this field
      

      1. VAT/GST incl./excl.: select whether the VAT/GST is included in the amount entered above or not
         

   5. Type: select whether the cost refers to goods (i.e. tangible items) or services (e.g. paying a diver for bottom scraping works)

   6. Category: refer to Categories & Customisation
      

Weather log

The Weather log-type is used for registering weather forecasting (usually obtained via HF SSB radio, Weather-Fax, etc).

1. Sea area: the sea area for the weather forecast following below

2. Imminent/soon: forecast of weather conditions for now and up to the next 12 hours

3. Later (>12h): forecast of weather conditions for after 12 hours

4. Outlook (>24h): forecast of weather conditions for after 24 hours and beyond
   

Radio log

The Radio log-type is used for registering radio-communications (HF, VHF, etc).

1. Channel: the HF/VHF channel number or frequency

2. Station: the call-sign of the corresponding station

3. Message: the radio-communication content exchanged
   

Social log

The Social log-type is used for registering some social activity (e.g. a restaurant/local-attraction visit, etc). No particular fields are available here since the basic, files (e.g. photos) and costs fields (see above) are adequately covering this.

Operations log

The Operations log-type is used to register operational activities (e.g. refuelling, water-refill, maintenance, etc). Refer also to Operations Log.

1. Linked inventory item: select the affected inventory item (e.g. fuel in case you need to record either spent fuel on a trip or newly purchased fuel)

2. Quantity: type the quantity bought or used (spent)
   

   1. Quantity action: select whether the quantity entered above is either
      

   1. Bought: it will be added to the linked inventory’s existing quantity
      

   2. Used (spent): it will be subtracted from the linked inventory’s existing quantity
      

3. Current usage: the linked inventory’s accumulated usage up to the time of this operations log record (e.g. 2,000 hours of use for an engine, 10,000 litres of use for a water maker, etc)
   

How to Manage a Trip

Go to the Trips screen, select the one you need to Edit and then click on "Details".

On the Trip-details screen, you may either End the trip, Edit or Delete it:

• End trip: click the “End trip” button on the top-right corner. This ends your trip (you will still be able to view and edit the trip records)

• Edit trip: select the 3-dots button on the top-right-corner and then click “Edit” to access the trip-details screen