Stop > Think > Act

It can often feel that there is no time to think things through under pressure. Every time you guess without taking the time to think through the next steps, you have a 50% chance of hopefully making the right decision. You also have a 50% chance of making the wrong decision. One wrong decision can have a knock-on effect quite rapidly at times. Always try to take the time to think steps through and find a way to stabilise a situation, so these things are not getting worse. This will hopefully allow you some time to come up with a plan and brief your crew on what is required of them. This is a major benefit of training so that you gradually increase the number of experiences you have skippered and the equipment you have used. It will help you to grow a collection of transferable skills that you can draw on during an emergency at sea. Hopefully, these experiences help you avoid even finding yourself in an emergency at sea.