Bluechablis
Member
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2012
- Messages
- 176
- Reaction score
- 2
- C Dory Year
- 2001
- C Dory Model
- 22 Cruiser
- Vessel Name
- Far C'r
I don't know if I ever met a C-Brat that didn't start off life as a sailor, I am sure there are some. I remember comparing notes with Dr Bob on Thataway about both our trips down through the Canal and our shared experiences, so I thought there might be some interest on the forum for my video.
I just published a video on YouTube I've been wanting to make for 35 years.
Back in 1990, my wife Jan and I sailed our 1970 Mariner Ketch Palantir out of Los Angeles harbor at 2am, bound south with two other boats disappearing into the mist. What followed was a two-year voyage — Baja California, the Mexican Riviera, through the Panama Canal, across the Caribbean, and three attempts to finally get home to Florida.
We kept a detailed ship's log the whole way. I never thought I'd be able to turn it into a real video — until AI made it possible.
Here's what I used:
Python + Pillow — I wrote custom scripts that read the ship's log CSV and automatically generated 76 transparent map overlay graphics with dates, locations, and log excerpts — all pixel-perfect and ready to drop into Premiere Pro.
OpenAI Text-to-Speech — The narration voice you hear is AI-generated using OpenAI's tts-1-hd model with the "Onyx" voice — deep and documentary in tone. Each 4-second clip was generated from the actual log entries.
Claude AI (Anthropic) — I fed the entire logbook PDF and the edit timeline to Claude, which read each log entry and wrote synchronized captions for every scene — 76 of them, tuned to be vivid and human.
KML Voyage Track — 195 GPS waypoints from the voyage were converted into animated map overlays showing our position, bearing, speed, and distance at each stop.
The source footage was shot on film in 1990. The AI made it possible to tell the story properly, 35 years later.
I just published a video on YouTube I've been wanting to make for 35 years.
Back in 1990, my wife Jan and I sailed our 1970 Mariner Ketch Palantir out of Los Angeles harbor at 2am, bound south with two other boats disappearing into the mist. What followed was a two-year voyage — Baja California, the Mexican Riviera, through the Panama Canal, across the Caribbean, and three attempts to finally get home to Florida.
We kept a detailed ship's log the whole way. I never thought I'd be able to turn it into a real video — until AI made it possible.
Here's what I used:
Python + Pillow — I wrote custom scripts that read the ship's log CSV and automatically generated 76 transparent map overlay graphics with dates, locations, and log excerpts — all pixel-perfect and ready to drop into Premiere Pro. OpenAI Text-to-Speech — The narration voice you hear is AI-generated using OpenAI's tts-1-hd model with the "Onyx" voice — deep and documentary in tone. Each 4-second clip was generated from the actual log entries. Claude AI (Anthropic) — I fed the entire logbook PDF and the edit timeline to Claude, which read each log entry and wrote synchronized captions for every scene — 76 of them, tuned to be vivid and human. KML Voyage Track — 195 GPS waypoints from the voyage were converted into animated map overlays showing our position, bearing, speed, and distance at each stop.The source footage was shot on film in 1990. The AI made it possible to tell the story properly, 35 years later.