Howdy...

Sounds like you need something like EventFrames, which is still only a CTP on vCampus.

How are you getting your data in to PI? Manual Entries, Automatic (e.g. samples from a LIMS to PI interface) or a combination of both?
One option would be to tag the data using Annotations (ValueAttributes) to store the "Ship Name/Number", to use another point attribute to store additional information (e.g. ExDesc, InstrumentTag) or have a clever method for creating PI tags (using AF for the structure and templates). As you know, AF would be the preferred approach unless there is something in the way you are collecting all the data that would prevent this.

The idea being you treat each ship as an Element (a Ship Element Template) and each time it docks with you the Ship element has a child Element (a Docked Element Template) that has attributes such as "Arrival Time", "Departure Time"...would need to analyse all the information you capture and how you capture it for a firmer plan of action.
Then your reports (Excel/Sharepoint) just look at AF, you see the list of ships, each ships docking events and the associated data for that particular event such as the status via digital states: Unloading, Halted...

Hope this helps.