The Black Box Theory

We put lots of points into our black box to keep Rasmus ship shape!

If there is anything that sums up safety at sea and why it is critically important to be prudent and diligent when it comes to maintaining your boat and making decisions it is John Vigor's "Black Box Theory".  With no further adieu I have reposted it here:

There is no such thing as fortuitous luck at sea. The reason why some boaters survive storms and have fewer accidents than others is that they earn their luck by diligent and constant acts of seamanship.

Aboard every boat there is a black box. Every time the skipper takes the time to consult the chart, inspect the filters, go forward on a rainy night to check the running lights or take any other proper seamanlike precaution, he or she earns a point that goes into the black box. In times of stress, in heavy weather or other threatening circumstances where human skill and effort can accomplish no more, the points are cashed in for protection. Those skippers with no points in the box are the ones that are later described as unlucky.

The skipper has no control over the withdrawal of points and, once the points have been removed, the the skipper must immediately start to replenish their savings, for the sea offers no credit.

Which begs the question; how full is your boat's black box?