On Saturday December 18, the Salinas community celebrated its 3rd annual 'Night of Lights'. An event where the Salinas Bay community of live-aboards, weekend sailors and land lovers, gathered to celebrate the Holiday Season with their families and friends by adorning their vessels with thousands of colored lights.
This year Kristine Amour and Bill Lapointe from sailing catamaran Cat Sass worked with a group of friends and volunteers from the community, to plan, organize and coordinate the event's activities and to identify and obtain sponsors.
The community dedicated the 2010 Night of Lights celebration to their friend and fellow sailor Dan Lyons from sailing vessel Mi Delphin who passed away in 2010. Dan was always an important resource in previous years' events.
The Borinquen Island Sailing Association (BRISA) donated the trophies and various area businesses donated gift certificates to be given as awards to the winners. Andy from the Manatee Eco Resort donated his restaurant facilities for the party and awards ceremony. The Heart of Sailing Foundation was present in order to continue promoting its message of making sailing accessible to everyone.
For this year's event the boats stayed at their moorings or docks and the judges cruised through the bay on a dinghy in order to come up with the final scores. Participants were judged on the number of lights displayed as well as their creativity and appeal to the international panel of judges.
Capt. Tony Miró is a life-long sailor, photographer and web developer who currently lives in Puerto Rico with his family, where they sail aboard their Hunter 376 ¡Nada Mas! He runs sailboatspecs.com, caribesailingadventures.com and tonymiro.com
