First Step in Weather Casting:
Step outside and look at the sky!

“Red sky at night, sailor's delight. Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning.”

Step Two for the Weather Man:
Check to see from which quarter the wind blows!

"A wind in the south has rain in her mouth."

Weather Casting Rule Number Three:
If you don't trust your own judgment, check with the local wildlife!

“Sea gull, sea gull, sit on the sand. It's never good weather while you're on the land.”

Failing All That, Choose Step Number Four:
Perhaps the most important weather rule of all for sailors!

Whether the weather be fine
Or whether the weather be not
Whether the weather be cold
Or whether the weather be hot
We'll weather the weather
Whatever the weather
Whether we like it or not.

Many thanks to Ship 1610 for posting the original listing of "Tips".

• Wear white-soled tennis shoes or boat shoes on the boat. Black soles leave marks that are difficult to scrub out. Plain old tennis shoes work fine - you don't need special boat shoes.
• Take any clothing that you might need with you in a small bag. Include sunglasses, sailing gloves, and sunscreen.
• Learn where to stow your bag down below. If you don't it might get launched with a spinnaker.
• Get a watch with a countdown timer and learn how to use it.
• Never leave wet foul weather gear on the boat.
• Go to the bathroom well before the boat is ready to leave the dock. Most boats don't use their heads or use them as little as possible. Learn how the head works. If you mess up and leave a valve in the wrong position you could flood the boat.
• Make sure to put sunscreen on your ears, forehead, neck, and the backs of your hands. These are prime skin cancer sites. And for us older guys, do the top of your head or wear a hat.
• Don't pull or push on stanchion tops when docking. There's lots of torque and you will damage the deck. Always catch the stanchion at its base.
• Don't abruptly stop the boat with a dock line when docking. A 10,000 pound boat has lots of momentum and snubbing a dockline sharply can damage the deck. Slow the boat down slowly and smoothly.
• Learn to rig the boat. You should know perfectly where every line goes.
• Learn how to use the electronics on board.
• Be at the boat on time. Early is better.
• If you're good at something teach it to someone who isn't. Learn someone else's job.
• Walk softly. Don't stomp on or jump on the deck. Many decks are fiberglass with balsa wood cores and high or repeated impacts can delaminate the layers.
• Talk about what you see and hear and feel and think. Is the boat going fast? Is the wind building or shifting? Is another boat faster or higher on a different part of the course? Is the jib lead too far forward? Is the boat accelerating too slowly? How could the last mark rounding have been better?
• Learn where all of the safety gear is and how to use it (e.g. life jackets, inflatable life jackets, VHF radio, Channel 16, man overboard gear, flares, etc.)
• After the cruise strip off all of the lines and clean up as much as possible before breaking out food and drink.
• Don't set gear or lines on the deck where they can slide or get kicked off into the water.
• Bring a dry change of clothes for after the cruise. 
• Don’t walk on hatch covers or windows.
• Don't kneel on, hit, or otherwise abuse electronic instruments.
• Even if you're not pulling lines or trimming sails you can make very important contributions during a race or cruise. These can be observations on the wind and weather, how lines are run, where other boats are, where racing marks are, etc. Learn how to recognize these things and distinguish what's important from what's not.
• Get safety straps for your glasses and hat.
• Never lie on top of, walk on, or sit on sails!
• Find a safe place to put your keys and wallet in the boat. This is often in a your ditty bag so you don't risk losing them when rifling through your gear bag for a hat or foul weather gear.
• You might want to wear kneepads until you get to know the boat. The bruises will eventually fade (or just merge together) when you reach this state. 

(Revised from Expedition Behavior - The Finer Points By Howard Tomb)

A good crew is like a powerful, well-oiled, finely-tuned machine. Shipmates cook meals together, face challenges together, and experience the joyous freedom of the open sea. A bad crew, on the other hand, is an awkward ugly, embarrassing thing characterized by bickering, filth, frustration, and crispy macaroni. Nearly all bad crews have one thing in common: poor cruising behavior (CB). This is true even if crew members follow the stated rules, such as Don't Step on the Rope, Separate Diesel and Water, No Trash in the River, Keep your Boat Hook Out of My Eye, etc. Unfortunately, too many rules of cruising behavior remain unspoken. Some leaders seem to assume that their shipmates already have strong and generous characters like their own. But judging from a few of the sailors we've encountered, more rules ought to be spelled out. Here are ten of them.

RULE #1 Get the heck out of bed. Suppose your shipmates get up early to fire up the stove and heat water while you lie comatose in your sleeping bag. As they run an extensive equipment check, coil lines and fix your breakfast, they hear you start to snore. Last night you were their buddy; now they're drawing up lists of things about you that make them want to spit. They will devise cruel punishments for you. You have earned them. The team concept is now defunct. Had you gotten out of bed, nobody would have had to suffer.

RULE #2 Do not be cheerful before breakfast. Some people wake up perky and happy as fluffy bunny rabbits. They put stress on those who wake up mean as rabid wolverines. Exhortations such as "Rise and shine, sugar!" and "Greet the dawn, pumpkin!" have been known to provoke pungent expletives from wolverine types. These curses, in turn, may offend fluffy bunny types. Indeed, they are issued with the sincere intent to offend. Thus, the day begins with flying fur and hurt feelings. The best early-morning CB is simple: Be quiet.

RULE #3 Do not complain. About anything. Ever. It's ten below zero; visibility is four inches and wind driven hailstones are embedding themselves in your face like shotgun pellets. Must you mention it? Do you think your friends haven't noticed the weather? Make a suggestion. Tell a joke. Lead a prayer. Do not lodge a complaint. Even if the sunburn you got while “Working on Your Tan” is more painful than a case of shingles, stand your watch like a professional – it’s your fault anyway. Were you promised a luxury cruise? Did somebody cheat you out of a fair wind or a following sea? If you can't stand your watch, go take a Princess cruise.

RULE #4 Learn to cook at least one thing right. One cruising trick is so old that it is no longer amusing: on the first cooking assignment, the clever cook prepares a dish that resembles, say, Burnt Sock In Toxic Waste Sauce. The cook hopes to be relieved permanently from cooking duties. This is the childish approach to a problem that's been with us since people first started throwing lizards on the fire. Tricks are not a part of a team spirit. If you don't like to cook, say so. Offer to wash dishes and to prepare the one thing you do know how to cook – even if it's only tea. Remember that talented galley cooks sometimes get invited to join major expeditions across the ocean, all expenses paid.

RULE #5 Either A) Shampoo, or B) Do not remove your hat for any reason. After a week or so on the boat without shampooing, hair forms angry little clumps and wads. These leave the person beneath looking like an escapee from a mental ward. Such an appearance could shake a crew's confidence in your judgment. If you can't shampoo, pull a wool hat down over your ears and leave it there, night and day, for the entire cruise.

RULE #6 Do not ask if anybody's seen your stuff. Experienced adventures have systems for organizing their gear. They very rarely leave it strewn around the cabin or let it blow overboard into the dark abyss. One of the most irritating things you can do is ask your shipmate if they've seen your dirty towel you forgot to put away after it was dry. Even in the unlikely event that you find the towel or can borrow your shipmate’s, you might not be invited on the next trip. Should you ever lose your water bottle overboard, do not ask if anybody's seen it. Simply announce at the next marina, with a good-natured chuckle, that you are about to set off to buy a new one and ask if anyone needs anything from the store.  It's unprofessional to lose your soap or your toothbrush. If something like that happens, don't mention it to anyone.  Keep you stuff in your sea bag and properly stowed away when not in use; nobody wants to constantly keep moving your gear.

RULE #7 Never ask where you are. If you want to know where you are – look at the chart. Try to figure it out yourself.  If you're still confused, feel free to discuss the techniques for finding your position. If you A) suspect that a navigation mistake has been made; and B) have experience in interpreting nautical charts, and C) are certain that your navigator is a novice or too fatigued to make good decisions, speak up. Otherwise, follow the group like sheep.

RULE #8 Always do more than your fair share. When the trip is over, would you rather be remembered as a steely-eyed-salty-dog or a sky-larking slacker? Keep in mind that cleaning and polishing a stretch of deck won’t make your day any longer, but it might get the crew on liberty sooner. In any given group of land-lubbers, somebody is bound to bicker about chores. When an argument begins, take the extra duty yourself. Then shake your head and gaze with pity upon the slothful one. This is the mature response to childish behavior. Underway later that day, let the slacker stand the watch without a head call.

RULE #9 Do not get sunburned. Sunburn is not only painful and unattractive. It's also an obvious sign of inexperience. Most land-lubbers wait too long before applying sunscreen. Once you've burned on a cruise, you may not have a chance to get out of the sun. Then the burn gets burned, skin peels away, blisters sprout on the already swollen lips. Anyway, you get the idea. Wear zinc oxide. You can see exactly where and how thickly it's applied and it gives you just about 100% protection. It does get on your sunglasses, all over your clothes and in your mouth. But that's OK. Unlike sunshine, zinc oxide is nontoxic.

RULE #10 Do not get killed. Wear your lifejacket topside and wear a harness when conditions require. Suppose you reenact the face-in-the-wind scene from the movie Titanic. Pretty macho, huh? Suppose now that you take a vertical detour off the bow without a soul seeing you go over and you never make it back on board. Would you still qualify as a hero? And would it matter? The worst thing to have on your sailing resume is a list of the possible locations of your body. Besides, your demise might distract your shipmates from enjoying what's left of their vacations.

All good cruising behavior really flows from this one principle: Think of your crew, the beautiful machine, first. You are merely a cog in that machine. If you have something to prove, forget about joining a cruise. Your team will never have more than one member.

Expedition Behavior
(Reprinted form NOLS website)

• Serve the mission and goals of the group.
• Be as concerned for others as you are for yourself.
• Treat everyone with dignity and respect.
• Support leadership and growth in everyone.
• Respect the cultures you contact.
• Be kind and open-hearted.
• Do your share and stay organized.
• Help others, but don't routinely do their work.
• Model integrity by being honest and accountable.
• Admit and correct your mistakes.