The gunnels cracked at the second thwart after a dry summer. I spent an afternoon with epoxy, clamps, and a heat lamp, and wrote down the sequence so the next repair is faster. The tricky part was keeping the epoxy out of the scarf joints — masking tape on the inside worked better than anything fancy.
A habit I picked up two years ago: one book per trip, chosen by the latitude of the destination. It makes no sense as a system, but it produces better reading than any recommendation list I have tried.
I have kept a paper log of morning pressure readings for eleven years. The numbers show nothing dramatic, which is exactly what a log is for. The printable form is available on request.