Log an observation

Capture what you saw, where, and how urgent.

There are two ways in, and which one is right depends on whether you have a hand free.

A JOT is the fast one: open it from the toolbar anywhere in the app, say it or type it, and carry on. No form, no required fields, no decision while you are up a ladder. You turn it into an observation later, from the Jot Inbox, when you are sitting down.

The FULL FORM below is right when you are already stopped and you know the system, the location and the urgency — it captures all of that in one pass.

Steps

1. Fastest — capture a jot instead

   Menu (☰) → Jot. That opens the Jot Inbox; the composer is its New button — two taps, not one. Title, body, a photo or a voice note — that is the whole thing. It waits in the Jot Inbox. When you promote it to an observation later, the text comes across and so do the photos (up to five, the same cap the observation form has). A voice note stays on the jot rather than moving — an observation has no voice slot — and the jot stays linked to the observation, so the recording is one tap away and the trail from "heard a noise" to "impeller replaced" stays intact.

2. Open Observations

   Either: Mission Control → the Open observations tile, which opens the Maintenance tab, or the Maintenance tab itself.

3. Tap + (Log observation)

   The + at the top right of the list — VoiceOver reads it "Log observation"; on an empty list the button itself reads Log observation. There is no button reading "New observation". The sheet opens. Required: title (short — 'Starboard windlass grinding'). Optional: description, system (pick from a list), location on boat (free text — 'foredeck, port side of windlass'), urgency, photos.

4. Photos = evidence

   Tap the camera button to attach photos from the camera roll or take new ones. Photos travel with the observation everywhere it goes — email composer, the work-order email to a vendor, the trip log.

5. Save

   The observation joins the list, sorted by URGENCY first, then category, then newest — so a Cosmetic one lands below everything more urgent rather than at the top.

   From its drawer you can email a vendor, create a work order, or resolve it (which asks HOW — see Issue lifecycle — open, in-progress, resolved).

   What you CANNOT do from the drawer is put it on the calendar: the Add to calendar switch is on the Log Observation sheet at the moment you create it, and there is no way to link an event afterwards. And there is no 'escalate to an Issue' — a record on the Maintenance tab already is one; the drawer's escalation is Create work order.

Related

• Observation vs. Issue — what's the difference?Same tab, two intents. Use the right one.
• Schedule service from an observationTake an observation and put it on the calendar.
• Email a service advisor or vendorSend the photos and notes to a vendor contact who already has an email on file.
• Jot — capture it in ten seconds, file it laterGet a thought out of your head and into the boat's record before it evaporates, without filling in a form.
• The Jot Inbox — turn a jot into a real recordWork through what you captured and file each one where it belongs — observation, issue, maintenance, note and more.

← All help articles