Almost everything that ruins a day announces itself here first. This is the only list where you have a dock, a phone signal and no time pressure.
Before you step aboard
How Open /conditions/8-2/ for home water and the area you are crossing into. Look at the wind trace, not just the peak number — 12 kt building through the afternoon is a different trip from 12 kt at dawn easing off.
Watch for A Small Craft Advisory anywhere on your route, or a barometer that has dropped more than about 3 mb in 3 hours.
How Who you are, the boat, where you are going, your route, who is aboard, and when to worry. "When to worry" is the part people leave out — give an actual time at which they should start calling.
How Slack water at the gate is not the same as slack at Everett. Work out when you want to BE somewhere, then back-calculate departure. Wind against tide is what builds the short steep chop that makes a 3288 uncomfortable.
Watch for An ebb against a westerly in Admiralty Inlet. That is the classic local trap.
Engine room round
How Boat level, engine cold or at least five minutes after shutdown so oil has drained back. Pull the dipstick, wipe it, reseat it fully, pull again and read. Record the level rather than just ticking it — a slow loss is only visible as a trend.
Watch for Milky or coffee-colored oil means water is getting in. A diesel smell in the oil means fuel is. Either one ends the trip before it starts.
How Same procedure. Compare the two — engines that have run the same hours should be losing oil at a similar rate, and a divergence is information.
How Check the header tank when COLD. Never open a hot pressure cap.
Watch for Oil sheen on the coolant, or a rising level, points at a heat exchanger or head gasket.
How Follow the manual for whether it is read hot, cold, running or stopped — gearboxes differ and getting it wrong gives a false reading.
How Close the seacock, open the lid, lift the basket, clear weed and jellyfish, check the O-ring is seated and undamaged, close the lid, REOPEN THE SEACOCK. The last step is the one that gets forgotten, and a closed seacock cooks an impeller in minutes.
Watch for Eelgrass after a blow, jellyfish in late summer.
How About half an inch of deflection at the longest unsupported span, pressed with a thumb. Look underneath the pulleys.
Watch for Black dust below a pulley means the belt is slipping. Glazed shiny belt faces mean the same.
How Feel the shaft log. It should be cool or barely warm after a run, and drip two or three times a minute underway, not run a stream.
Watch for Hot after running means it is too tight. Salt crust means it has been weeping.
How Look, do not just listen for the pump. Note how much water is there compared with last time.
Watch for A sheen means oil or fuel. Water that tastes salty is coming from outside the boat and you do not leave until you know where.
How Look at the clear bowl on each primary filter for water or black sludge. Drain off any water into a jar, not the bilge.
Watch for Water in the bowl after a fuel-up means you took on bad fuel. Sludge after a rough passage means the tank got stirred up.
How Check resting voltage before anything is running, and confirm the switches are where you want them for departure.
How A rag or a tool left on an engine becomes a projectile or a fire. Look before you close the hatch.
Safety gear
How One per person, the right size for the person wearing it, accessible not buried. Children's sizes actually fit the children aboard today.
Watch for Inflatables: check the cylinder is tight and the green indicator shows armed.
How Type IV, on deck and reachable in one motion — not in a locker under the cushions.
How Check each gauge is in the green and the pin is intact. Invert and shake dry-chemical units so the powder does not cake. Confirm the count and rating against current USCG requirements for your length.
How Flares expire 42 months from manufacture. Check the date now, not when you need them.
How Power on, squelch set, check 16. For a real check use channel 9 or a working channel and ask for a radio check — never call for one on 16. Confirm your DSC MMSI is programmed and the GPS is feeding it, because that is what turns a distress button into a position.
Watch for If DSC has no position feed, a distress call tells the Coast Guard someone is in trouble but not where.
How Check battery expiry and that registration is current with NOAA.
How Lift each float switch by hand and confirm the pump runs and water actually leaves the boat. A pump that hums but moves nothing is worse than none, because you will believe in it.
How Test before dark, not after. Include the anchor light and the steaming light.
Watch for If there is any chance of returning after sunset, this is a critical item, not a nice-to-have.
Deck and topsides
How Rig the lines you will need for arrival before you leave, not while approaching a strange dock in a crosswind.
How Anything that can take green water over the bow gets dogged down. Include the foredeck hatch.
How Open the fridge, the lockers and the cupboards in your mind at 20 degrees of roll. Anything that would come out, stow now.
How Breaker off at the pedestal first, then unplug. Stow the cord so it cannot go over the side into a prop.
Navigation and systems
How Electronics fail on the day the weather is bad. An offline chart on a phone counts, if the phone is charged and you have actually downloaded the tiles.
Watch for "I have it on my phone" is only true if the data is cached, which it will not be out of signal.
How Know whether your sounder reads depth below keel or below transducer. The difference is the whole margin.
How Third out, third back, third in reserve. Read the gauge and check it against your logged burn rate — gauges on a 40-year-old boat are a suggestion.
How Your log lives on the phone until it finds signal. A flat phone is a lost log as well as a lost backup.
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Emergencies — Mayday script and six procedures · All checklists