Having just published two chapters on how to manage refit and maintenance projects in a boatyard, I’m thinking that it would be useful to share the computer and handheld device software (apps) that Phyllis and I use to keep our boat and cruises, as well as our business and personal lives, organized.
Why is this so important? Well, it’s not for nothing that we call running an offshore cruising boat:
Death by a thousand details.
But there’s a greater point here than just a jokey saying:
And so it’s well worthwhile finding good software tools to manage those details and then using them religiously—the latter can be harder than the former, but is more important.
Here are the apps we use and what we use them for and, most important of all, why and how.
“…since the sun will burn out first”…thanks for adding a bit of humour to a potentially dry topic!
I’m customizing an Excel spreadsheet for provisions and spares to mate up with the location of said provisions and spares on the boat, because we have a ridiculous number of places to stash stuff aboard, and it could get unmanageable. I’m also attempting to format these spreadsheets so that when the inventory gets below a certain point, the column goes from green to yellow, and if it gets to one or two items left (say, an oil or Racor filter), the column goes to red. This gives a visual prompt as to when to order or acquire certain items. The coffee column, in particular. Thanks for the reminder that the core of seamanship is probably organization, restocking and anticipation!
John, thanks for your insights – can you speak to the differences [as it pertains to the boat] between OmniOutliner and OmniFocus? Also would you care to make available your Excel maintenance sheets that might either be used as templates, or at least as a matter of comparison to what we may be using?
Hi Dartanyon,
I have never used OmniFocus (it was not available when we bought OmniOutliner) so I really don’t know. That said, a bit of reading seems to indicate that Omnifocus is more of a to do application. Might be worth looking at to use in conjunction with OmniOutliner as a replacement for todoist, but not as a replacement for OmniOutliner.
As to my maintenance spreadsheet. The screen shot in the post tells you pretty much everything there is to know that would be useful. The rest of it is so free form and cryptic that it would not tell you much.
Useful post as always. Beyond maintenance and storage locations, we also track procurement, passage preparations and diesel usage. We also used to track watermaker performance but we have fallen off that bandwagon.
The procurement sheet is useful to us as items can be categorised based on urgency and practicality i.e. some urgent items can be found in a place like Fiji or the Marshall Islands but other items are easier to obtain when we are in New Zealand either bought locally or shipped in from the US. Even more importantly perhaps for us is the category for items to be carried into the country by guests coming in from Canada or the US.
We also track diesel quantities and usage to ease managing our three tanks and to help improve our understanding of our burn rates at different RPM and conditions
The passage preparations sheet is more of a checklist (maybe an aviation background becomes evident) with a column for all passages and additional column for longer passages. There is also a checklist for leaving the boat for a longer period of time.
Thanks for all the good work.
Max
SV Fluenta
Presently Mcleod Bay, New Zealand
Hi Max,
Seems like we are very much of the same mind, We too use a spreadsheet for fuel use and checklists for going to sea, although ours are in the outliner.
And our inventory spreadsheet is, like yours I think, also our procurement list.
There is one flaw with your application: A backup or safe guard copy is required. Without a backup, mission critical data can be lost for ever.
I am using EverNote for the last 10 years. Simple to use, works on every type of computers (Mac, Windows…) smartphone, tablets, web browser…
I basically store everything into it, lists, spreadsheets, manuals, pdf, pictures, voice notes, you name it, boat log book, scan documents…
It syncs over the cloud when on line, so that one day I update a note on my iPhone, the next day I continue at my office using my desktop computer, next day over the web via a browser. And all this for free. Don’t even think on backing up. It’s built in because of its cloud capability.
Every time I am coming with an idea, something I must remember, a lost I need to consult, almost where ever I am, I pull my phone, my PC, a web browser and it is there.
The paid version (80$/year?) includes a fantastic search as it can even OCR text on any document or picture you have stored and better offline features.
Love it.
Hi Phil,
Yes, I have heard great things about EverNote. That said, I did take a look a couple of years ago and decided I preferred the apps I list above—each to their own. We do use Notability for some business stuff, but it has not found much use on the boat.
Not sure where you got the idea that we don’t backup. In fact, as a computer tech by trade, and later a business system designer, I’m a holy terror for backups. More here: https://www.morganscloud.com/2018/01/09/working-while-cruising-our-offices-on-morgans-cloud/
Also, all the apps I mention in the post have cloud sync and backup capability.
That said, I would never trust cloud sync as a substitute for backups. The problems are twofold:
John,
for backup I am using BackBlaze (https://www.backblaze.com), costs USD 95,- for two years, and backs up data over the cloud, so it won’t be lost even if the boat goes to the bottom. Worth a look I’d say.
Hi Ernest,
That looks like a nice solution. We use Arq with Google Cloud Storage. It works well, but it’s kind of techie and I think not as user friendly as BackBlaze. I particularly like that if you have a crash BackBlaze will mail you a drive since something I think people miss is that at typical download speeds it could take literally months to restore a crashed computer.
For this reason, and because I’m just a belt and suspenders kind of guy, we also backup to hard drives (three in rotation) and always have two off site.
Another vote for Evernote, everything goes in there, filter sizes, saved Web pages, pics of bus timetables, shopping lists, to do lists, serial numbers of gear, you name it then you can actually find it again.
First thing which has actually worked for many things like inventory, to do lists prioritised based on the “ getting things done” method.
Invaluable app. 🙂
Hello John,
I am new to your website. Very useful posts. Please, tell me which version of Todoist do you use – the free or the paid one?
Thanks
Eugeni
Hi Eugini,
Glad it was useful. We use the paid version of Todoist. We need and use the added features, and also we are a great believers in the idea that if we want good software, and want to have that software properly maintained, we need to pay a reasonable yearly fee…but then I would say that, given what I do (and did) for a living. 🙂