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Keeping a memory of one's cruises


Tony1

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Yesterday I realised something, which is that its quite nice to be able to go back and look over a film of one's cruising. 

I found this out because I set up a brace of security cameras as a deterrent for scrotes and burglars, and since I was in a hurry to get going yesterday morning, I left the cameras set up on the roof.

So every time I passed a pedestrian, or stopped at a lock, the cameras were being triggered to record.

I wasnt thinking about this during the cruise, but during the evening, out of idle curiosity, I looked back at a few of these 20-second clips, and I was struck by how many of the small events I'd already forgotten about by the time I moored up. 

I watched myself joking with a few passers-by, or being warned by a helper at a lock about an infamous killer swan that lay in wait at my intended mooring location (which was absolutely true, the beast is extremely hostile even for a swan, and began attacking myself and my bicycle shortly after I moored).

It struck me that it might be quite nice to be able to have such film footage to look back on, perhaps in a decade or so, or whenever the time comes that I'm no longer in the physical state needed to cruise a boat. So I'm pondering the idea of setting up a camera halfway along the roof to record my trips, to be switched on at the start of every cruise. 

The youtubers do this routinely as we know, as a sort of performance art thing- and good luck to them. They will always keep those cruising memories as a side benefit of their on-camera performances.

The fact is we don't all want to do youtube, but we do want to go cruising, and I bet we all forget large amounts of stuff that it might be very nice to look back over, later in life. 

So how many people already record their cruises in a comprehensive way? 

Do you have a camera permanently recording, or do you point a camera only at specific/interesting things?

Or do you take the approach of just relying on memory?

 

 

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So far I have taken to writing a journal - handwriting rather than typing, radical I know ;). I also have my camera and phone camera. The big issue is my handwriting, apparently it makes doctors handwriting look neat and legible ...

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I keep a handwritten cruise log. It's about one A4 page per day's cruise, less if it's just a hop beyond two locks, more if it's something requiring more detail, such as River Soar to Sawley Cut to Shardlow in one day.

 

In it I note down any interesting happenings (today's will describe me successfully reviving a hedgehog seeming suffering heatstroke on the towpath by sprinkling it with cool water then setting it down in thick shady grass with a saucer of milk), noteworthy sights seen, refuelling details, and the final mooring report (pins/piling, any highlights or noise issues). I'll also record the signal strengths on the mobile networks I use.

 

Once I get my solar panels installed, I expect the log will need expanding to include shade, hours of sun details.

 

Photos happen when I have my little Sealife waterproof camera with me on the slide. Which isn't very often. I have so many travel photos I'm less inclined to view them these days.

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A couple of years ago we were hit head on by an oncoming boat who'd failed to slow down on a blind bend. Thankfully no damage or injury resulted, but since this incident I mount my car dashcam in the cratch frame window. It hadn't occurred to me that it would capture some wonderful 'action film' of our travels albeit from just the one perspective though.

 

It records for 4 hours on a loop, split into in 3 minute segments, plenty enough to cover each days cruising. I can trim any of the segments to a shorter duration, and pause one in a specific place to extract a 'still' photo from it. 

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Because I'm mostly into photography, although we did take along a video camera on our last holiday, I didn't use it as much (it's also ancient, and cheap... unlike the camera!).  However I did occasionally balance it on the boat roof and let it video as we went along.  I have a conversation recorded in a Berko lock (52 it looks like) where a passerby - who you can't see - asked if it was our boat.   Apparently she wanted to know how the curtain fabric was - part of the conversation is a bit drowned out by a passing train but I think she was wanting seat covers made in something similar.  She moored at Cow Roast and thought it might be our own boat because it looked so nice and you don't see many hirers that far south.  Apparently I was also worried a dog was going to jump in the lock! 

 

The major downside to playing it all back is the oh-my-gosh-does-my-voice-really-sound-like-that issue!  There's a conversation we have while coming back out of Berko and I sound like I'm giving the Queen's Speech at Christmas.

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8 hours ago, Alway Swilby said:

We keep a journal of writings and photos. It's typed and kept on a blog. Other people on the web read it too but it is a primarily so we can look back on our travels.

Our motivation as well. Started in 2007 when Blogger was pretty new to Google and mobile internet pretty primitive. We mainly had to visit a Wetherspoons for a cup of coffee to upload! (NB Warning - my typing and sub editing has not improved in the meantime!)

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8 hours ago, Alway Swilby said:

We keep a journal of writings and photos. It's typed and kept on a blog. Other people on the web read it too but it is a primarily so we can look back on our travels.

I do much the same and the main purpose for me is to pinpoint where I have moored so that when coming through the same place in the future I will remember where to aim for/avoid. It's funny the number of times I've moored up somewhere and thought "Where did we moor last time we were here?" and after checking the record find it is almost exactly the same place we have moored again, usually eliciting the response,"I don't remember mooring here ":huh: although in fairness to the possible advancing dementia, some of these places we haven't visited for over 7 years, and a lot of places can look similar.

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