Some useful things you can do to make sailing easier and safer.
Anchoring the Boat. Lake sailors need to know where to hide when the weather gets bad. Anchoring in the middle of a lake may not be possible or practical. Bay sailors, however, can drop an anchor just about anywhere in the bay since all the Texas coastal bays are shallow. One hundred feet of anchor rode is the minimum, sufficient for a 7:1 rode to depth ratio where the depth is less than 14 feet, as it often is in Texas bays. The picture shows how the rode runs through a block with a spring neck secured to the bow pulpit, with the rode running aft to be tied off where convenient. There is a spring line attached to the anchor as well, to permit positioning the boat at an angle to the wind and to help with pulling up the anchor. The trip line is cheap polypropylene, which floats. The anchor is kept in the cabin and deployed from the cockpit, so the rode runs outside the shroud when the anchor is in its bag in the cabin. Don't think you can crawl forward and deploy the anchor while perched on the bow. The one time I really needed to ride one out, it was so rough that getting to the bow was impossible. It's so much easier to just toss the anchor over the side and let the wind push the boat back, setting the anchor in the bay mud. Always make sure the end of the rode is tied to something before deployment. I keep the end tied to a grip on the cabin top or to the cockpit rail, and use a stern cleat to tie off the anchor. A heavy canvas bag is nice for stowing a muddy anchor.
Docking. Sometimes there are pilings with bolts sticking out of them and they are unavoidable. Rigging a fender from two flat fenders and a paddle can help you avoid getting your boat scratched up. I put an I-strap at the forward end of both hatch guides and drilled holes in the flat fenders to accept a loop of shock cord to hold the paddle.
Halyards. Leading the halyards into the cockpit allows the sails to be raised and lowered while still sitting in the cockpit, nice when conditions are rough or when trying to do two or more things at once. The jib and main halyards pass through cheek blocks mounted at the base of the mast, then pass through cam cleats screwed to a teak bar mounted over the hatch. There are also downhauls for both sails. The center line is for the boom vang.