Web log for following trip

[JackRobinson]

We are going on a trip soon, and I would like our friends and family to be able to follow us.

I’m looking for a website where I can post logs, text, and photos so that anyone can go there and see what we’re up to.

Not everybody wants to do Facebook, and I don’t want them to have to download an app.
So it needs to be just a website that is for this purpose.

Any suggestions?

[JoeRobertJr]

Hi, Jack,
Are you going to be within cell coverage the whole trip, or are you talking about satellite link updates? Where is your trip?

[thesaltytar]

Welcome to the forum JackRobinson.

I'm glad you're asking this because I am looking for something similar.

The best I can think of is to either use a Word / Excel document(s) in either OneDrive or DropBox. OneDrive seems to work better when multiple people are accessing the same document.

This would enable you to make updates on a daily basis without Internet and, when you get Wi-Fi, it syncs automatically. I would really like a blog that operates on the same principle.

[JoeRobertJr]

I use a shared Google Doc and Discord, but then I am for now just cruising around the Chesapeake Bay where I almost always have a connection.

Here is one offshore sailor I recently followed. He used PredictWind with routine satellite updates, maybe with Iridium Go. https://forecast.predictwind.com/tra...SV_Spellbound/

[sailingharry]

We absolutely love travelmap.net For an example, follow us at circe.travelmap.net

There is a free version, but it is very limited in the number of photos. We use the intermediate version, which is about $35 a year. We find it adequate. There is a high level version which we don't find interesting.

No matter which version you use, if you let your subscription lapse, the content becomes static but does not go away. So in theory, you can use it for a year or two, and then stop paying but still review the trip several years in the future.

There is no requirement at all for visitors to log in. Browsing is completely anonymous. There is a feature to allow comments, although I am not terribly sure how that works. And full disclosure, while I found the site, the admiral does 100% of the work on it.

I should note that the site is very well suited to a trip, but probably fails horribly to document a local cruisers activity. If you don't move from one place to another, you don't have a trip line to follow.

There is also a feature that we have yet to use that allows the entire trip to be printed and bound.

If you decide to sign up, we'd appreciate your mentioning us, as there is a referral bonus of some sort.

[JackRobinson]

We will have cell coverage intermittently. We are sailing lake Michigan and Green Bay.

[JackRobinson]

I have a friend who is sailing the south Pacific and he has that setup. He has Iridium Go and Predict wind. His blog posts start with a chart with his course on it with all the changes and little dots for every log entry. It's wonderful. We are all following him.
But That's too complicated for our little trip. We'll be in intermittent cell coverage so we want a light version.

[Chotu]

How about one that’s not necessarily just for boats? I’m looking for the same thing. Just a travel site where you can upload pictures and some comments about the pictures.

[requiem]

Back in ancient times, there were these things called blogs that people would post updates to.

If you aren't up to hosting your own server, wordpress.com offers managed hosting.

A shared Google doc or slide deck can also work.

[sailingharry]

Originally Posted by Chotu

How about one that’s not necessarily just for boats? I’m looking for the same thing. Just a travel site where you can upload pictures and some comments about the pictures.

The one I mentioned, travelmap.net, was designed by an Aussie for his bicycle trip around the continent. Most assuredly not boat related!

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by JackRobinson

We are going on a trip soon, and I would like our friends and family to be able to follow us.

I’m looking for a website where I can post logs, text, and photos so that anyone can go there and see what we’re up to.

Not everybody wants to do Facebook, and I don’t want them to have to download an app.
So it needs to be just a website that is for this purpose.

Any suggestions?

I don't blame you for not wanting to use facebook, it's stupid.

We created a blog on google blogspot. Pretty easy and it's free.

Try here: https://www.blogger.com/about/

You can see what we have done with ours (below)

[ChrisJHC]

There are some ideas here:

https://www.travelchinacheaper.com/b...rnal-app-guide

The very last one seems to match what I would use.

[ParL]

There are a bunch of free blogging platforms. Depending on your tech style and abilities anything from wordpress.com by way of GitHub pages to a self hosted blog platform could work. Link in a map from inReach if you want to. Even e.g. DokuWiki could be made to work for your porpoises (sic). And as others have said if it is a small circle of friends & family a document in a shared Dropbox folder (you -- and possibly someone trusted at home -- has write permissions, every one else just read).



Personally -- and I'm a bit on the techy side -- I'm looking at a hosted static site generator (jekyll?) using rsync to upload. The advantage is that I can see what the reader would see on my laptop, then rsync would upload just the changed files. No mass of interlinked PHP-scripts as in WordPress: just html and CSS, so low risk of getting hacked.

[RobertL]

You might like using www.noforeignland
Many cruisers use it to show track and post blogs.

[Provist]

There is also Skipperblogs - At sea, blog easy specialized for sailors/cruisers. There is a free versions with a big follow map and a paid version with tracking via AIS, IridiumGo, Inreach etc