#sailing log

New Post has been published on http://fillingthesails.com/nerd-geek-techie-whatever-you-call-it/

Nerd, geek, techie; Whatever you call it

Ever since I was a young child, I’ve been fascinated with various statistics. I’ve been called a nerd, geek, and techie just to name a few. It’s interesting, though, because I abhor mathematics. I never was very good at the formulas and everything associated with them. Thankfully, my sons didn’t inherit my limited math skills; they’re extremely intelligent and actually enjoy all aspects of math and numbers and such.

Even though I don’t consider myself very proficient at math or numbers, I am certainly proficient in the use of MS Excel or Google Sheets to extract all kinds of information for me.

Those of you who are regular followers might remember by post about creating my sailing log on Google Sheets and the sailing stats page I have set up with all kinds of statistics. All these graphs containing the stats are updated automagically (lol) as I enter new information into my sailing log.

I’m off work for the next couple of weeks [hopefully not longer] due to an on-duty knee injury. Since I’m not able to continue working on the boat just yet, I decided to make good use of the time I had since I’m bed-bound right now.

Firstly, I made a graph illustrating my sailing hours and miles broken down by year. It includes all sailing, solo sailing and night sailing. As you can see by the graph at the top of the post, with each year I’ve done more sailing than the past year. That’s definitely a trend I’d like to continue!

The next big thing I’ve done is to help automate my sailing log updates. You may or may not know that you can make your own form with Google and have the inputted results populate a Google spreadsheet. I created a form based on the stats I’ve already been compiling. I created a shortcut link on my phone and tablet which takes me directly to the form so I can enter the sailing information in after sailing. When I hit submit, all the information is immediately updated in the spreadsheet which then updates all my graphs and dials. It saves me from having to open up the spreadsheet and enter the information in manually.

Here’s a photo of how the form used to enter info looks. It’s in two separate pieces due to screenshot limitations. I initially had the form collect hours, minutes, seconds in the HH:MM:SS format, but when it hit the spreadsheet, the formatting got messed up every time and the conversion to a decimal time wouldn’t work properly. So you’ll notice I included a conversion chart so I can correctly convert hours and minutes into decimal time and input that directly.

Sailing Log entry form

I have several friends who sail and as far as I know they don’t collect any information or track their sailing outings. I’m hoping I’m not too weird for wanting to keep track of all this, but I think it’ll be nice to one day look back on everything I’ve done. I guess it might come in handy for proving up my accumulated experience when I try to get a captain’s license. I’m thinking I’ll eventually try to be a delivery captain when I gain enough experience. It’ll be good to have some additional income on top of my retirement income.

Mike

New Post has been published on http://fillingthesails.com/stopped-in-my-tracks/

Stopped in My Tracks

Those of you who’ve followed me for a while know from previous posts that I use an app called My Tracks by Google to track my sailing outings. It’s a great, no frills app that simply works. One thing I also like about it is that once I’m finished sailing, the app has a function that allows me to export the statistics directly to my Google Sheets Sailing Log. All I’ve ever used for tracking my stats is My Tracks.

So needless to say when I logged into my app a few days ago and saw this warning, I was a bit disappointed.

Now I gotta find something else to use…..and yes, you can see the last time I went sailing was December 22. I missed all of January!

  Unfortunately, now I have the pleasure of seeking out a different app to keep track of my sailing stats.

Google recommends a few alternatives, a couple of which I’ve already tried out a little. I’ll be posting my results of testing those apps that make the shortlist later.

In the meantime, what app or apps do you use to track your sailing?

Mike

New Post has been published on http://siochana.us/2013/10/accumulated-sailing-log-stats/

Accumulated Sailing Log Stats

I thought it’d be very cool to track every hour and mile of sailing completed, so starting when I took the ASA Sailing class, I’ve kept track of those stats (and other stats) with an app on my phone. All the information is logged into a Sailing Log spreadsheet I keep on my Google Drive. The really neat part of this it that it automatically updates the associated chart every time new information is input. 

Here’s the chart that shows accumulated hours and nautical miles spent sailing so far. These are hours actually moving, not time spent rigging and un-rigging the boat.

The app tracks even more data, such as maximum speed and average moving speed. I might end up making a page on this site with some charts containing complete stats.

I’ve been accused of being a nerd or geek in the past…guess this is one way to prove that correct. Lol.