4. Secure It Most thieves are opportunists and seek out easiest vessels to strike. Purchase and use quality locking devices for your boat to make entry and accessibility as difficult as possible for would be thieves. Also, remove as many items as feasible when you are going to leave your boat unattended. The best way to keep thieves from stealing property from your boat is to not leave it aboard. Remove high risk items like TV’s, radios, and CB’s. If you are not going to remove items, store them out of sight in a securely locked cabinet or locker. Lastly, you may consider having an alarm system installed on your vessel. Care should be taken to select security equipment that is resistant to environmental elements typically found near waterways.

5. Marina Security Many thieves are successful because they look as if they belong in area. Become acquainted with your fellow neighbors at marina. A tactful offer to help assist a stranger to find a person or a boat will signal to thieves that you are looking out for each other and that nobody goes unnoticed. Urge your fellow neighbors to also be observant of strangers in area and to question their presence as well.

Be sure to always lock your vehicle when parked at a launch site, marina or dock. Remember to keep all windows secured and to remove any valuables from sight. If you are not taking your purse, cell phone, or other property with you, lock it in trunk while you are gone. Also, to lessen opportunity a would-be-thief has to break into your vehicle, park it in an open, visible area.

Be mindful and alert of any suspicious vehicles or persons who are lingering in area. Record license plate numbers and remember physical descriptions of these vehicles and persons you observe loitering in area.

Remember, a marina with good security equipment and good security practices is a good start. Having marina members who actively carry out these five steps can make difference between crime prevention and criminal activity.

Then, without hesitation or slackening of time, play straight through with fewest mistakes possible. Although ultimate aim is, of course, no mistakes at all, that aim is not furthered by stopping to pick up a lost chord. Keep looking ahead, and follow St. Paul's advice as to forgetting things that are behind.

Even a foundational knowledge of harmony helps. If one if familiar with tonic, dominant, and sub-dominant chords in all keys, it will be comparatively easy to grasp general harmonic scheme; and in playing bass of duets, or accompaniments for singers, this is main thing.

But it is not enough to be able to play at sight what is prescribed for composer. A real musician should have a mental apprehension of sounds indicated by printed symbols without hearing them. If you can read and understand a book without saying words aloud, you can surely become sufficiently familiar with notes to read and understand music in same way.

Try to cultivate this real musicianship. Take something very simple, but unfamiliar. Play over scale and opening harmony, so as to be sure of pitch. Sing in your mind some of melodic intervals, and test them at piano. Form a distinct mental picture of sound of a chord, and test this in same way. Try a succession of melodic intervals, then of chords, then a whole phrase, melody and harmony together, endeavoring first to comprehend effect away from piano, but finally playing them to verify or correct your impression.

Eventually printed symbols will come to represent definite sounds; and when your brain so understands music, your fingers will unhesitatingly obey its promptings.

To acquire facility in sight-reading there is just one all-comprehensive prescription: read. Read all music you can find that is within, or, still better, below your technical grasp. It is not necessary to play it in prescribed tempo, but go through to end without hesitation. Try to get at least initial notes of each measure, but trust to future for ability to get them all. It is sure to come with time and perseverance.