My new year's resolutions:

1. We resolve to go boating more in 2002 than in 2001. Last year and in years before, we sacrificed leisure time for work. This comes from a little voice in the head that keeps whispering work-before-pleasure, work-before-pleasure. It's hard to out-shout that voice because, alas, there's always more work to do. But, good news. Doctors say a well-balanced life must include leisure as well as work. Our newly-balanced life will include more time on the boat. Thanks Doc.

2. We enjoy boating so much that we want others to have the same feeling. I’ll ask our friends to join us on the boat more often. I read somewhere that if you take up an activity before the age of 15 years, you’re more likely to continue it as an adult. So, when we invite our friends to cruise with us, we’ll ask them to bring their children or grandchildren, too. In 2002, we resolve to introduce boating to more young people. We want them to catch the boating bug, too.

3. We are in awe of Mother Nature. Where the water meets the sky and earth, she is a huge, felt presence – beautiful and inspiring: It's a privilege to see her sunrises and sunsets, no two the same; her birds of prey on the wing…or pecking their way across a sand bar. In 2002 I resolve to learn more about the things I see that give me such pleasure. When a dolphin chooses to ride our bow wave, my nieces and I will look at it carefully and notice its markings and other personal characteristics. Our goal is to know that dolphin. We may even give it a name. Maybe I'll see that beautiful creature again. If I do, I will thank it personally for bringing us such pleasure.

4. Where we boat there are hundreds of small, uninhabited islands and when we cruise by them we sometimes wonder what they're like. The birds own most but others have untouched, inviting beaches and there's a rise to the ground that suggests to me that people lived there years ago. Maybe they left behind a tangible record of their lives -- arrowheads and pottery. In 2002 Vic and I will launch the dinghy and more satisfy this curiosity, the thing that links boaters like you and me to the great explorers from Ulysses to NASA's astronauts.

5. I love books and own a stack of award-winning novels, biographies and historical fiction unseen by my eyes. Birthdays, holidays and anniversaries come and go. I get new books; my stack gets taller. Our boat has a special place where a body can curl up and read a good book. The stack will go on the boat. In 2002, I will read my books.

We can't wait to go cruising. .Two thousand and two is going to be a great year.