I was planning to go beyond caulk. The is a description in a West System publication of setting hardwear in epoxy. I was planning to do that but was thinking of using a wood based epoxy instead of West (I have seen West crack). I was also planning to seal off the deck from the chainplates with epoxy while not epoxying in the chainplates (I'll still need to caulk them). I am amazed at the quantity of water in my deck within a few feet of the cainplates, very little rot but a lot of water. TO my knowledge they had always been seeled with 3M 5200. It did not work! I want to dry it out and make it so it virtually can not get wet again. It seems like caulking is a system waiting to fail.
