Danger! Will Robinson - Pay Attention to Your Alarms

Alarms go off for a reason, don't ignore them. Continuing to run with an alarm sounding can be VERY costly!
There can be a lot of alarms on your boat, oil pressure and overheating, pump alarms for water, oil, bilge.    If an alarm is sounding or flashing the equipment is probably close to being damaged if it continues to run.

Two simple steps - Pay Attention and Know What the Alarms Mean

We go boating to have fun, out in the sunshine, engine running, tunes playing, people on the boat talking, looking at the fish finder or the channel markers or the shore scenery, it is easy to miss a red light or LED in the sunshine, it can hard to hear a warning beep or buzzer over the music. Get in the habit of scanning your system displays on a regular basis to check for issues.

When an alarm is sounding or a warning light is on -  STOP -  determine what your equipment is telling you. Somethings you may be able to fix, maybe a pump hose has come loose. Other issues  may allow you to return to dock at idle, the serious ones may require a tow to prevent extensive damage.  (A tow in can be a lot cheaper than replacing your engine because you kept running.)
Your owners manual should have descriptions of the alarms the equipment emits, if you do not have a manual most can be found online at the equipment manufacturer webpage.  Rather than carry a lot of paper onboard,   copy just the pages with the alarm info, or make a cheat sheet with a list of the alarms and what they mean for all the equipment on board, then put just those pages in a waterproof bag that you can refer to easily when needed. If you haven't done this, and you have cell phone service, phone someone on shore who may be able to look on the internet to find out for you.

There are also non-alarm sounds that you should pay attention to. They may not require aborting your outing but need to be looked at as soon as possible. Loose belts squealing, metallic tapping of valves/lifters, grinding/grating of bearings in pumps, louder exhaust indicating the cooling water is not flowing well.


For humorous article on this issue see the article at   http://www.boatingmag.com/22-ways-to-screw-your-engine