With the heavier type of boat that cannot be moved once the tide has left her, try whenever possible to go in on a rising tide as you can then see where she is to lie before it floods and thus avoid rocks or stakes. If this is impossible, remember that seaweed never grows on plain mud but only on stones or stakes. One can often lie against the cant of the salting and so step ashore dry shod BUT make certain that your bit of salting is actually connected to the sea wall, not, as so often happens, separated by ditches six feet deep.

Watch out for the trend of the tides. If they are falling off, make certain that you don't touch until at least 30 minutes after high water. I once got myself neaped from Wednesday evening until the following Monday morning in the Medway. My mistake was to rely on my watch for high water. Put a stake in the ground and watch for visual signs that the tide has in fact turned. Boats with a slight keel find it convenient to lean in against the shore or salting and there is a danger of the boat falling outwards towards the channel. Remove the main halyard from the head of the sail and belay somewhere near the mast band. Then make the fall fast to the anchor warp and lead it well ashore.

Once the boat has settled fill your bucket with water before it all goes. This will be useful for washing feet, hands, etc. to keep the boat clean. A pair of waterboots is essential if you are going to walk through mud to the shore and back to the boat. Nothing is more depressing than arriving back at the boat in bare feet black up to the knees with the tide gone and no bucket of water to clean them. Waterboots can be left stuck in the mud while you are on board until the tide returns and you can clean them or you want to go ashore again. But slip a bit of line through the eyeholes and round a cleat or you may forget when the tide returns and they float grandly away.

It is generally better to moor under the lee shore and head to wind if you are to sleep in the boat. If you are on a weather shore and need an anchor out to haul off to before getting the sails up, remember to put it out before the tide comes in. Some people are scared of walking on mud but remember you cannot come to any harm carrying out the anchor as you always have the warp to haul yourself back on. Remember that most of the problems of getting ashore in a small boat without a dinghy can be solved by not going ashore. After all, we spend all too little time afloat, and a couple of days isolated from the shops and pubs are not usually fatal.

If your fellow sailor(s) smoke, for heavens sake make certain they have plenty to smoke. A smokeless smoker is a dead loss anywhere, but isolated in a small boat he or she becomes an incitement to murder. Half of the problems of the mass of personal gear needed for a cruise of any length can be halved by sailing single-handed. A loaf of bread can be sliced and buttered and will keep fresh in a polythene bag for days.

The beginner tends to think in terms of sailing from daylight till dusk. For successful cruising one must be governed by the tides and prepared to sail at night. In fact this can be a fascinating business and often the night brings a steady breeze for long passages. Don't expect to navigate a dinghy like the skipper of a steamer who is at least fifteen feet above the waterline (the height assumed in all chart details for visibility). In fact with your seat at water level an ordinary navigation buoy can often be missed at half a mile. For coastal work an Ordnance Survey map is far more use than a chart. Navigating the Thames Estuary in a dinghy is a bewildering game. Many would disagree with me but I find it easier to cross at night as the lights on buoys make them so much easier to identify.

Don't complicate life with a lead line. Use a care about six or eight feet long; this can be used like a walking stick for smelling out channels. If cruising the Blackwater and likely to need to use a telephone make certain you have four pennies with you. They have a Stone Age phone system whereby the operator cannot hear you until the coins have been put in the box. The Colchester area has a number that can be dialed for four pence to get an East Coast weather forecast.

Don't risk life and mast offshore on tiny bottle screws. No small metal fittings can be really reliable. Good Italian hemp lanyards never let you down. Get good stout stuff so that you only need five or six turns which means quick adjustment. Use tarred hemp. The outside soon turns grey but by twisting open a strand one can tell the heart is sound if it still has the rich amber colouring.

Folding and unfolding a tent can be difficult business. This can be simplified if part of the tent is permanently fixed in position. In my half-decked Zepher the tent was permanently fixed to the coamings from the mast round the starboard side as far back as the centre thwart. Most of the gear was packed up and stowed under the starboard side of the foredeck and the tent was doubled under itself and smoothed down to cover the gear. This meant that however much wind was blowing, it was a simple job to pull out the tent over the boom and secure the rest of it.

A muddy anchor in a small boat can be a worry. In Zepher I always carried it on the foredeck hooked round the samson post with the stock rigged beside the gun'l, and with the warp ready tied to the post so that it only had to be chucked overboard. Thus no mud was ever brought into the boat when getting under way in a hurry. If your boat is on the sturdy side, don't forget the old bargeman's trick of using the anchor to bring the boat about when you are beating up against violent winds under close reefed main only. Just drop the hook, check her and pull it up again. I have done this under really wild conditions single-handed. Of course the mainsheet must be made fast. This can only be done with a gently shelving beach.

Once again with the more sturdy type of boat, gybing in heavy weather can be eased by passing the main sheet (preferably with a large knot in it) out through the horse into the wash of the boat as it is hauled in. When the boom goes over, let go of the sheet and you have a hydraulic shock absorber. Catch the end again as it slows to a stop. This needs careful practice and experiment but it can be useful.

Elementary this to some people, but many others sail for years without realising it - most boats heel less and are more stable with the plate up or nearly up. Even with a really heavy plate this usually applies. When sailing in narrow tidal waters such as the Broads the tide runs much faster in the centre of the channel and thus when tacking one finds that with a foul tide the boat comes about easily as the foul tide catches the boat's head and turns it out into the channel while a fair tide pushes the boat's head back into the bank.

It is well worthwhile changing into pyjamas to sleep. You will feel more comfortable and they may eventually be the only dry clothing you have.