Sarah Pedersen Ive been evaluating automating and digitising log keeping with a wonderful little app called Ships Logbook for Captains, it’s not perfect and has a tendency to stop working requiring a restart, but it’s pretty good overall at automatically creating regular log entries. It uses a feed of NMEA data on my boats Wif Network (I use a shipmodule miniplex to achieve this) together with information from the internet wherever a connection is available to record regular position and status updates that include all the usual types of entry that you would enter in a paper log, and has a lot of additional functionality including the ability to sync across multiple devices and broadcast a position update to a web link.
An important feature is the ability back up the log, and you can export the log to a variety of formats including CSV and PDF.. I’m fairly happy with the result from 2022 even though it had a few technical blips resulting in missing position reports, sailing across land and lower logged mileage than recorded on my plotters, it certainly got a lot better as the year progressed, possibly because I remembered to restart the app every day.
Link to a short extract of my 2022 logbook. Logbook Snowbear 2022 extract.pdf
Update 2023
We used all 2023 season and it’s been updated. We really liked the features and we are displaying one of the maps on our website in the footer.
It is a great product.