Sailing with a Navy Carrier

Sailing with a Navy Carrier

While sailing the York River with his family, a retired Navy officer told me two stories about sailing with a Navy carrier. He stipulated they were not for attribution., “We were in the North Atlantic on the Navy carrier USS America in 1972. Along comes a 13-meter sailboat whose skipper had no idea how to […]

Sailing to the Ghost Fleet

Sailing to the Ghost Fleet

The term Ghost Fleet applies to three genres, maybe more. The first Ghost Fleet is well known to those living in Tidewater Virginia as the Ghost Fleet of US Navy and Merchant Marine ships anchored in the James River off Ft. Eustis. After World War II and for years afterward, the fleet once had more […]

Sailing to Afghanistan

Learning to Sail

Jennifer and Curtis Miller took their family on a “glam camping” trip to the York River, and we wound up sailing to Afghanistan. They are active duty Air Force, so they drove from nearby Langley AFB to Cheatham Annex, east of Williamsburg. There the Navy has decked out the old commandant’s compound into weekend getaways. […]

Sailing with Patriot Pirates

Patriot Pirates

Then.People ask, “What’s with the pirates?” The Battle of the Capes was a classic sea battle. Not so the battles by pirates. George H. Patton’s “Patriot Pirates: The Privateer War for Freedom and Fortune in the American Revolution” presents another story. Here is the tale of America’s insurgency against the British merchant ships and Navy. […]

Sailing to Find Saddam

Sailing to find Saddam

Three couples with diverse backgrounds enjoyed a smooth day of sailing on the York River. And they drove a considerable way to do it. Gerald Napper brought his gal Renita Marshall from Ft. Lee, south of Richmond. He’s a First Sergeant with 24 years in, and she’s a dental administrator. He drove more than a […]

Sailing with Scholars

Sailing with Scholars

And A lovely couple from Annapolis went sailing near Williamsburg for their first anniversary. And it was a joy to go sailing with scholars. “This was a total surprise,” said Sara Crouser as she boarded the boat with her husband Mark. “He can never keep a secret, so this is really special. Plus he knows […]

Burial at Sea

Burial at Sea

  People ask, “Do you conduct burials at sea?” A funeral is hardly a fun thing to do on vacation, but it can be exciting. The Novy siblings gathered from all over the country to make the most of a melancholy situation as they buried their brother at sea. “This is the second service in […]

Sailing in Alaska

Sailing in Alaska

Dave Mrowiec never surrendered the helm when he took his wife and another couple sailing along the York River in strong winds. I’ve never seen anyone happier behind the wheel. “My father sent to me Alaska when I was 19 to work on a fishing trawler. It was 52 feet and we’d fish for salmon. […]

Sailing with Zeus

Bridge Locked Again

On an otherwise calm day with fluctuating winds, two couples from the Midwest got to watch as the USNS Zeus came into the York River on the way to its home port at Cheatham Annex. They saw the Coleman Bridge swing both spans open to let the big ship transit. The Zeus looked beaten up […]

Sailing with Autism

Sailing in Alaska

I do around a dozen “charity auction sails” a year, where I donate the trip for good causes, after expenses. While cruising along the York River in brisk winds with their friends Tara and Dave Farrell, Dave Mrowiec took the helm while his wife Sydney explained the work of the Peninsula School for Autism, one of […]