Dexter, the service manager here at the Brewer Yard where my office is located, shot this photo my way yesterday illustrating a key point or two about basic boating safety. Good stuff to check this time of year. I mentioned a few weeks back the need to check the expiry dates on items in the first aid kit, checking fire extinguishers, and expiry dates on things like CO monitors are also key items. But let's not forget some of the basics here either. Check this one out:

Yup, that's someone's anchor chain and rode. About the only part of that mess that's worth saving might be the three strand rode, and I say that with some reservation; want to inspect the whole length before I make the final call on that count.

Remember, in many cases when you need an anchor, the situation might just be a marginal emergency. The last thing you want is for the whole thing to break away from the weight of your boat under extreme conditions. The anchor is much more than a mere convenience item. Make sure the entire assembly is in top notch condition on your boat. Oh, and make sure the bitter end of the rode is actually tied to the boat.

One of my most memorable mornings occured quietly sitting on my boat one early morning sipping coffee in the cockpit and watching a young couple pulling into the anchorage next to us to set their anchor. After all the yelling and screaming was done between this young couple the lady finally deployed the anchor and the rode was let out, and out and out and out............only to discover that it wasn't tied to the boat. I watched the whole incident and will never quite forget the look on the young lady's face as the tail of the rode slipped overboard and into the drink. Take two on the yelling and screaming began immediately. The good news? we were in only about 20 ft. of crystal clear caribbean water. Easy to find the whole thing. We got that pair squared away fairly easily.

So, the lesson for today is check this stuff out and next spring run through a few practice drills with your boat mate(s) to get the whole anchoring thing down. All the yelling and screaming is just not appreciated in an otherwise peaceful anchorage.

One of the things I always like to remind readers about is that the primary by-product of lousy electrical connections is heat. Enough heat, and things catch on fire. That's pretty easy for just about anybody to understand.

What's not so obvious to most people is that there are some relatively easy and inexpensive ways to see if too much heat is being generated. In the photo below I'm checking the quality of the main positive feed cable to the starter motor on a friend's outboard engine.

The infrared heat gun shown is one made by ExTech, but these guns are widely available today from a number of vendors. Radio Shack sells them. I've seen them for sale for as little as $29.95.

So, besides using them to check for engine cooling system problems or to see if your steaks on the grille are at the right temperature, these guns make a great tool for finding loose or not so obviously corroded electrical connections. The way I do this is to scan the cable in question using the red laser light on the gun. This way I can establish a median temperature in the cable in question. With the engine cranking in this example, I close in on the connection with the laser light. If I see a temperature rise of 25 degrees F or more, I am immediately suspicious of the quality of the connection. This is a simple technique that can help you find some elusive problems, and save you from burning your finger tips!

There's a good reason the gun above is also shown in Eds Tool Box.

Its that time of year when things begin to slow down a bit. The holidays are just about over, the boatyard is filled to the brink with shrink-wrapped splendor and I begin to get into a winter funk as I wait patiently for Memorial Day weekend. Until then, there are some things we need to do to make sure we are good to go when the boating season returns. One area that gets overlooked way too frequently is safety related and an easy fix, if you remember. Your flare kit and some of the medications in your first aid kit have expiration dates and now is the time of year to give them a good look over and replace things as needed.

All of the flares in your kit will be marked like this one. Check those dates!

Some of the medications, like this antiseptic creme will also have expiration dates. Its time to update folks!

Every now and then either I or one of my buddies comes up with a real work of electrical art that we need to share in our hopes that readers here will get the idea that we're watching you and if you mess up, sooner or later one of us is going to expose you. This week's little nugget comes from my friend Dexter who was working on a customer's boat here at the boatyard and discovered a real gem of a double pole circuit breaker installation. This goes well beyond the Tupper Wear plastic box installs we sometimes see. Check this out people:

The interesting part about this first class horror show is that the poor person who now owns this boat just bought it. I wonder if they bothered to get a survey before they jumped into this beauty? If they did, I really want to meet the surveyor so we can have a few words..............

So, for those who are having difficulty understanding what they are looking at, let me provides some details here. ABYC requires a double pole circuit breaker to be installed on the shore power inlet to a boat so equipped (with shore power that is.) So the mouseketeer that did this got that part sort of right. But they didn't get the part right where we require terminations to be made inside enclosures that require hand tools to get at any live terminals. The piece of twine securing the breaker to what I'm told is the diesel fuel tank vent line is really quite stunning. It looks quite snug and tied with good knots...............

Folks, when I see things like this it just further supports a theory that I've begun to embrace more and more as I get older. The term "common sense" is an oxymoron. People, when it comes to shore power voltage potentials, do it or get it done professionally. This stuff is lethal and is no place to cut corners.

Well I hate to say it but it is that time of year again. Time to put the boat to bed for the winter hibernation period. That includes your boat's battery(s).

This little maintenance chore, if done properly can go a long way toward making sure you get the maximum life out of your batteries. Conversely, if you ignore what I'm about to tell you, your batteries are sure not to last as they should.

Let me begin by emphasizing one key point, there is no need or even a desire to remove the batteries from your boat! The habit some old timers got into with this procedure is right up there with setting a bettery on a concrete floor and the concrete sucking the life out of a battery like some sort of vampire. The concrete isn't the culprit and never was, and the need to remove batteries from a boat when it goes into storage for the winter is in the same mis-imformed category.

What is important is that the batteries get a full charge before you lay them up for the winter.

All batteries have what is known as a "self-discharge" rate and although it varies somewhat depending upon the type of battery and it's overall condition, the rate of self-discharge is never more that about 5% per month. So, if you start out at 100% and the boat sits in hibernation for even 5 months, that is still only a 25% loss in charge, bringing things down to a 75% state of charge. That's good enough to keep the battery from freezing in really cold climates and more than adequate to minimize any sulfation tendencies.

An additional concern, especially on newer boats is the matter of parasitic loads that may contribute to a discharge rate greater than the 5% mentioned above. Most boats today will have equipment on them that will have internal memory or some sort of LED display or monitoring light. These things add up and in some cases can create engough of a cumulative load to actually draw the battery down quicker than desired.

So, you need to make the call here. Is mid-winter recharging practical for you? Or, should you just disconnect the battery(s) so that there is no danger of a parasitic load discharging them too far while in storage. Of course if that is the choice, you'll have to reset all the pre-programmed stations on the stereo and such in the spring, but that really shouldn't be a big deal. Personally, I go for the full disconnect on my boat. I get a lot of years of service out of my batteries too.