Operating a boat takes teamwork. It also takes knowledge. Having that knowledge will add to your sense of security, which will add to your enjoyment of your cruise.

As a first mate, you’ll want enough knowledge about anchoring to be a good second opinion for the captain when s/he is:

• choosing a good spot to anchor
• dropping and securing the anchor
• watching the anchor
• weighing or lifting the anchor

  You know those mornings on your boat when there's a brrrr in the air? If you don't have a heater on your boat, you're considering staying in bed the rest of the day. Or if you do have a heater, maybe you don't really want to turn it on.  But, darn, it’s cold.
   Here’s a solution that I’ve found works really well. But you have to pay attention.
   First, get a candle that comes in a tin container with a lid. I buy mine at TJ Maxx, but you can find them at just about any discount and department store. Be sure to check out the scent so you know you can live with it.

    We just installed a Charles Marine isolation transformer in L'Esprit.
    Honestly I'd never even heard of the thing until we arrived in Petersburg, Alaska, and had to move from the preferred North Dock to South Dock, which was farther from town.
    Our crime? Every time we connected our shore power, we kicked on the dock's circuit breaker. Maybe a ground wire came loose. Maybe a current decided to change paths. Whatever. I'm not an electrical genius. All I know is we had to pull up stakes and move to the far end of town, and that we were in danger of electrifying the surrounding water and divers within.
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   I think it's great they've invented LED collars for dogs. I love that they're easily seen, which is a high priority when cruising on the water. I also like all the neon colors they come in, and that they're rechargeable. Lucky pups.
   But I'm an Inside Passage cruiser, so I'm always looking at things from the perspective that they can have a different use aboard L'Esprit. I bet you're like that too!
  Here're some ideas for using a LED dog collar, even if you don't own a dog.

   I remember when having a solar charger was unthought of. Now I can't imagine not having one.
   In fact, now we have phones and laptops and tablets and GPSs and LED lights and portable speakers and iPods and . . . .
   Well, the list goes on. And they all need to be charged if we want to use them.
   Some of you have boats that truly rely on having an ample solar power system. Others of you don't. But all of you will, at one time or another, wish you had a small or medium-sized solar recharger.
   Maybe you're out in your dinghy longer than expected. Or you're hiking and your phone's power dies. Or you've run out of plugs to plug into.

   I love soft hoses. So does Captain Dave, which surprised the heck out of me since he loves all things industrial strength.
   I love them because they’re easy to store. They collapse into a supple half-a-Trader-Joe’s bagful, instead of a stubborn coiled pile that’s the size of a car tire. That means I can store in a closet or under the floor boards without hogging a lot of space.
   And they weigh a fraction of what those big-guy hoses do. With one finger, I can lift that Trader Joe’s bag that’s holding my flexible hose.  

   It rains a lot in the Pacific Northwest, which means your shore power cord is vulnerable to corrosion. Corrosion, as you know, creates resistance to electrical flow exactly where you don't want it: where the male end of your plug meets the female end of your shore power. At least that's what we've found aboard L'Esprit.
   But thanks to Shawn Clarke of Pacific Marine Electric in Bellingham, we have learned to combat this problem.

   One of the really fun aspects to cruising the Pacific Northwest is anchoring in secluded bays and coves, where you are the only boat for miles. But that's also kind of scary because, if you're like many boaters, you worry about the trustworthiness of your anchor and chain.
   Capt. Dave, as he is wont to do, read an article about some survivors of a Caribbean hurricane. One thing they attributed to their survival was a Wasi Powerball, a well-made German stainless steel anchor-to-chain connection swivel.

This is a big shout-out to Julie Cefalu of The Crafty Quilter. She made a beautiful iron caddy/ heat-resistant pad similar to the one I made.
​    I'm not one to do much ironing on board L'Esprit, but every once in a while I want to have nicely pressed cloth napkins. Or sometimes I need to be neatly pressed when visiting a nice restaurant.
​    For those times, I have stashed tidily away one of these iron caddies, which also serves as a portable ironing board. It works great for my boating needs because it's handy, compact, and easily carried. How to make it?

If you boat in the Inside Passage (anywhere between Olympia to Glacier Bay), there a some excellent books you’ll want to have on board. In fact Capt. Dave and I think they’re so important, we have a copy of each at home as well as on board.  Here they are: ​