Tidy up your boat

*Tidy Up Your Boat*
Just before you want to call it a day and go enjoy the night, maybe even have a beer, wait just a sec. Think about your next few hours.
Do a little tour around your boat. Consider how you want to prepare your boat for the night. What's the forecast? What can you see with your eyes? Are there any big clouds coming? How is the anchor wind shelter look maybe you’re in a weird mountain gap that can potentially accelerate wind over night ?Rain? A calm star-filled night? Will the winds be all over the place? Does the swell match up with the wind for a comfortable night?
Any one of these questions has some sort of simple preparation you can do.
I always start by checking my surroundings for clouds, weird-shaped cliffs that might accelerate the wind. I check the anchor and the snubber, examining the deck to ensure there are no trip hazards. If there are unavoidable trip hazards, I inform the crew. Maybe take on/off laundry from the rails. My favorite thing is taking the bimini down so we can enjoy a starry night. It's such a good feeling to have all that space all of a sudden with no bimini. Dodger/sprayhood up or down depending on wind.
Pull the boom up, secure halyards away from the mast so they won't bang and make noise. Secure pretty much every loose line that might make noise, whether it's a self-tacking jib track or slacky reef lines inside the boom. Swim ladder up or down depending on sea state. Make sure the engine is off and so on. No stray items in the cockpit the can fly out to sea.
My point is that you stop and think for a second. You won't be able to remember to do everything and might wake up at night from a banging halyard you forgot to tie. But having this routine, learning to develop it, and remembering to do it every night will lower the chances of future shitshows.
Shitshows are unavoidable when you're 24/7 at sea and want to enjoy your life a little bit. Find your balance of how much you want to work and how much you want to enjoy your time, and how tidy you want your boat to look.
Stay sexy 😘
#boat #sailingtip #lookinggood

[@danybazak2623]

TNX 4 that - "No to Shitshows"