Hoges in WA wrote:
Would anyone happen to have an example or two of their preferred passage
plan layout or deck log layout?


I don't know if you're interested in planning/deck logs for my type of
cruising - mostly coastal New England with 2-4 days travel to
destination - but here's what I do:

Trip planning has become much easier with the new technology. I can
trace out a trip from Boston to the Vineyard on Coastal Explorer and it
can tell me exactly how far I can go, what the tides and currents are,
etc. However, it's impossible to create a schedule for a trip that is
guaranteed to hold up. For example, when heading south through the Cape
Cod Canal you can't predict how bad the chop will be at the Buzzard's
Bay end, or how nasty the the Bay will be. Last year we were turned
back by 8 foot square waves and went into Onset; the year before the
chop was tolerable but a thunderstorm was coming up the Bay so we turned
in at Red Brook.

Thus, trip planning is not so much figuring out what we'll do in an
ideal situation, but considering a dozen different possibilities
depending on what happens along the way. Since the decisions sometimes
have to be in the worst of conditions, I want to know in advance how a
given delay will affect a critical part of the route a few days hence.

Admittedly, I've become lazy and less ambitious as I've gotten older, so
I tend to use familiar routes, add extra days to compensate for delays,
and plan on "easy" anchorages if there's a late arrival. Thus much of
the contingency planning is pretty easy and familiar.

As for deck logs, I use the C. Dale Nouse Deck Log by International
Marine. The format doesn't matter much - what's more important is that
I've logged every time I've left the dock (and a lot of times I haven't
left) for the last 18 years. I've filled about 8 or 9 volumes.
Sometimes (not very often) its hour by hour, or tack by tack. Other
times its "powered out, raised sail, sailed around X Island, came back,"
but it always has the time and who was aboard. Fuel fills, pumpouts,
etc are always logged; oil changes and all other maintenance, of course
are noted. We also make a point of noting mooring or slip numbers,
phone numbers, VHF channels, names and anything else that might come in
handy if we revisit a few years later.

I'm sure that there are many who are far more meticulous, and I know
that most sailors keep no log at all. But I've been very pleased with
my system - what it lacks in detail it makes up for in consistency. My
advice is simply to find some method that suits your nature, and stick
to it.