Log Book vs Ship's Log — which log is which

WatchKeeper has two log pages with confusingly similar names. Thirty seconds here saves you hunting later.

Log Book — where you write

The Log Book is the traditional hourly log for the passage that's underway: position, speed, wind, sea state, sails, engine RPM, and a notes field. This is where "post a log entry" happens — from the Log Book page or the Post log button in the dashboard header.

Entries post fine offline and queue until you have signal — see Logging offline.

Ship's Log — where everything reads back

The Ship's Log is a read-only merged timeline of everything recorded aboard: Log Book entries alongside the VHF Radio Log, Fish Log, service log, and Incidents & Safety entries, in time order. Filter pills narrow it to one source, and the Safety lens pulls out the entries that matter in a review or an insurance conversation.

You never write into the Ship's Log directly — it re-displays what the individual logs recorded.

Rule of thumb

• Recording something? Go to the specific log it belongs to: Log Book for the hourly entry, VHF for radio traffic, Fish Log for the mahi, Incidents for the thing you'd rather not have logged.
• Looking something up? Start at the Ship's Log — one timeline, everything, filterable.

The other logs at a glance

Log	What goes in it
Log Book	Hourly passage entries — position, conditions, sails, engine
VHF Radio Log	Calls, watches kept, radio tests
Fish Log	Species, weight, method, angler, photos
Incidents & Safety	Incidents, drills, safety briefings
Service log (Maintenance)	Work done on the boat, with next-due reminders

All of them feed the Ship's Log timeline.