Section 5

Plotting Basics

Please note that keeping a log is not part of the CYA Coastal Navigation Standard.

Navigators keep track of a lot of things during a cruise: courses, bearings, changes in speed, estimated effects of current and leeway, weather, and fuel usage to name a few. A logbook or log is used to enter information for later referral.

Logbooks may vary from notepads to elaborately-bound books with custom-printed pages. Regardless of type, they should permit quick and orderly entries in an easy-to-read format. Legibility ensures that other crew can follow the boat's track and conditions encountered. Commercial vessels are required to keep a log. In the case of an incident, logs may provide evidence in court.

There are no hard and fast rules about what goes into a log. Some boaters restrict entries to navigational matters. Certainly anything to do with any urgency — monitoring a "Mayday" call, for example — should be entered in detail. Others use it as more of a journal as well as a log with light-hearted entries such as "We saw seven porpoises today", or "Running low on peanut butter". Entries should allow the passage to be re-traced and events to be re-constructed.

What to Include

The logbook provides a record of a journey that can be revisited for facts or fond memories. Here are suggestions as to what should be included:

	points of departure, course, speed, distance to DR positions, fixes
	bearings, lines of position, buoys used as fixes
	courses and headings, changes of course
	time of day (24-hour clock)
	effects of leeway and current
	changes in local variation
	weather, changes in weather if deteriorating
	engine operation, maintenance, and problems

When doing the cruising exercises in this course, you may want to enter information in a log before plotting. This can help you organize the material and avoid mistakes.

Logbook Page A blank logbook page that can be printed and copied. Use the Back button on your browser to return to this page.