Amy and I had a wonderful New Year's Eve and a fabulous start for 2010 on New Year's Day.
We spent New Year's Eve at the sailing club. There were about 15-20 of us there. We all brought some food and our beverage(s) of choice. Amy and I took some of those new pretzel crackers, along with a pasta salad dip and a chicken salad dip that went over well. A few other members baked some pizzas in the oven there. Another couple brought a tiramisu that was extraordinary. Some folks brought some chips, others brought dips and salsas, others brought some party mix.

Amy and I drank beer throughout most of the night. We all watched the ball drop and at midnight, we all ate 12 grapes, threw out cups of water, and toasted the coming of the new year. Amy and I had hard cider instead of champagne, as that is what has been the traditional toasting beverage of my family and ancestors from way back.
The New Year's Eve party came to a close at around 2:30 am, then Amy and I went to our boat's cabin to sleep.

We awakened the next day, New Year's Day, in the morning, went to the clubhouse and had coffee with biscuits for breakfast. By about 2 pm, the sun was shining warmly, though we had a good, brisk wind comming off the water, so it was still a bit cold out, but Amy and I decided to take the boat out for a sail.

Perfect day for sailing my C&C 30, which is an offshore racing cruiser. Winds were up at about 15-25 mph, steady, and gusts up to 41 mph! It was awesome out there, with whitecaps breaking at the bow and spray coming off the water!

I only had the mainsail up, since having both the main and the jib would have been more work and probably better only if I would have had a crew of a couple of extra people on board. Even with just the main, I still got the boat heeling a few times at 20 and 25 degrees, and twice having the toerails (the top of the sides) touching the water. Those couple of times, I quickly brought her back to about 20 degrees, since that is about optimum for sailing speed.

This was the first time that Amy had seen me take the boat out by myself during rough water weather, so it was a good thing, since she was able to see, firsthand, how well I handle a nice-sized sailboat in rough water and good winds. Amy mainly stayed in the cabin, since it stays much warmer down below than in the cockpit.

Since I had not taken her out by myself in high winds and rough water yet, it gave me the opportunity to see how well she handled under these conditions. She handled extremely well.
After a couple of hours of sailing, I decided to take her back into the harbor and dock her. I started the engine, but decided not to engage the transmission unless I absolutely had to. Instead, I sailed her back into the harbor and she handled so well, docking her nearly perfectly, under sail.

I've heard that whatever you are doing on New Year's Day, you'll be doing that a lot throughout the year. I definitely plan on sailing a good bit throughout 2010.
I hope ya'll had as wonderful or better New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

Capt. Leonardo Ortiz (USMM)