Sailing Log

Saturday I went sailing on the Great Salt Lake. Every time the boat goes out, an entry is made in our log book. This week I noticed that we are getting to the end of the book and so I stopped by the local boating shop on the way home. I couldn't find their log books and so I asked one of the sales people for help. She said that their selection was very limited because everyone is moving to computers to keep track of their boating adventures. Nothing matched what I was looking for and so I figured I could just order something online.

Saturday evening I pulled out my laptop and did a search for log books in the hopes of finding the exact same book we have used for our previous 2 log books. Unfortunately it is out of print and while I could order the book from Amazon, it will cost me $122! It is only worth about $20 and so I kept searching. Unfortunately I can't find anything that matches exactly what I am looking for and so I am going to have to make my own. It will be as simple as purchasing waterproof paper, printing log sheets on both sides of the paper, and having it spiral bound at Kinkos/FedEx.

Now don't get me wrong. I love computers and think they are great for keeping track of information. However they don't really mix with water. We ruined a perfectly good laptop when we sailed back from Hawaii. The computer survived the 21-day trip but was useless afterwards. While you can purchase water-resistant laptops, they are expensive and completely unnecessary when compared with the low cost of waterproof paper and a cheap pen. This is one of those examples were we try to apply technology to a problem where it is not needed.