A harbour notebook does not have to begin with a boat sketch. Spend a few quiet minutes listening from a safe, permitted shore location. You may notice rhythms and interruptions that a photograph leaves out.
Describe the sound before naming its source
“Three light taps followed by a pause” records something you heard. “A loose fitting on that yacht” adds an explanation you may not be able to verify. Keep the first description and mark the second as a possibility. Ordinary uncertainty makes this exercise more useful, not less vivid.
Give the listener a position
Note whether you were under a shelter, beside a wall or in an open space. Add the approximate observation duration. These details explain why another listener elsewhere might describe the same harbour differently without either account being wrong.
Choose one recurring sound and one interruption for the finished entry. Avoid recording private conversations or treating the exercise as a navigational assessment. Its purpose is to make a personal account of the waterfront more attentive. Read the note later without the photograph and see whether it brings back a particular place rather than a generic seaside scene.