I was never diligent about keeping a written ship's log for inland and near coastal (less than 25 nautical miles from shore) sailing. In my opinion, detailed hourly position reports in a log simply doesn't make sense for day sailing, or port hopping. Even updating a log every 4 or 8 hours with position and various other data points is not very useful unless you are collecting data for study, or if you need to qualify your time at sea. In my humble opinion, most log books and logging software programs collect a lot of mundane data of little practical value to cruisers. (I wrote a blog post on ship's logs if you really want to know my thoughts.)
The part of a trip that is most interesting to me, and to my family and friends is the 'story' of the trip, not the details of my exact lat/long position at such and such time and the barometer reading. So, my current approach to logging relies on electronic position updates via HF and satellite, and daily narratives of events.
The position updates are via Automatic Identification System (AIS) and Iridium Satellite Communications, and the (almost) daily check-ins on the marine/ham SSB radio via The Pacific Seafarers' Net. AIS updates my position once daily, and can be found on websites such as Marine Traffic. The Pacific Seafarers' Net tracks my position and other data once daily upon check-ins. Finally, the Iridium Go system updates my position underway hourly, and plots my track on my Predict Wind Internet page.
The narrative portion of my log are the posts uploaded via the Iridium Go satellite system at least once per day to my Predict Wind tracking page while underway. I find the narrative makes for more interesting reading by others and provides a way to share my experiences, my thoughts, my rants, and other important events aboard the boat.
At the end of each passage I will compile the passage notes and add additional thoughts and photos into the blog posts linked below.
Sailing Log Notes