Hmm. Both your methods seem to be good. But they have some drawbacks.
SailorSteve's makes the writing and the typing a double the work sort of thing though this was how it was in real life, I would have to be typing up my entries of my last patrol before I go on my next patrol.
While Irish1958's method would require the game to stop in order to alt-tab. Unless one runs in windowed mode, which isn't always ideal. This method might be the method I take.
But it looks like these are the only ways of remedying this. So I guess it's all we got.
-pditty8811