I'm 67 year old [very capable] woman and have just purchased boat - it's being delivered to the marina on a small lake (11,500 acres) in Kansas on Friday. I'm looking for a step-by-step operations manual for doing anything/everything on the boat, and why, such as:
- to start the motors,
- Turn on battery dials, located in side/rear of stern with panel (why is this needed, since I have a smart battery charger).
- Go into cabin, locate breaker panel (in my boat it's left side of galley), and turn on both DC port and DC starboard engine breakers (why is there a separate breaker to ensure there is power to the engine? why not just turn the engine off/on?)
- Turn both keys counter clockwise (and why are keys here and not at helm)?.
- From helm,
- locate blower rocker switch; run for at least 4 minutes
- ensure both engines in neutral
- start starboard (why not port) engine first by pushing up on rocker switch; hold until engine catches and then release
- Once engines are warm [how long should they idle in summer, vs. winter vs. fall], to leave slip:
- Ensure all electric connections are unplugged from dock.
- [which tie downs (correct term?) to release first, such as upwind port or downwind starboard]
- what to do with bumpers, preparing to taxi (yes, that's an airplane term)/cruising
- Before actually moving, insure emergency release is connected to you (skipper).
- etc.
I'm looking for step by step for all things, even simple: starting generator - including tips for when to run generator, and when to not; turning A/C on while at dock vs. turning A/C on while anchored on water; checklist for what you do when you first arrive at the dock and enter your boat, and then when you leave your boat - for a week or more, or just when you leave for and hour to run an errand; checklist for what to do once anchored, and confirmation that all of this can simply be undone once anchored is pulled; checklist for what to do before flushing the head, if you docked, vs. if anchored.
I'm not looking for how to put an anchor down, or how to properly dock or move into a slip. Yes, definitely learning those things, but there is plenty of info out there on those, and mostly they just simply require practice. I'm looking for how to properly get to the place where I can begin to move my boat so I can anchor somewhere, or dock.
Apologies if this is a repeat - please don't hesitate to point me to a thread where this is already answered.
