Mark and Denise Osenbaugh (center) of Chesapeake returned for their second sail of the season to celebrate his 61st birthday. In a few years, they plan to retire and sail a Lagoon or other big catamaran to the Caribbean.
World Sailors
The Hooper brothers from Ohio and New York took their wives sailing to celebrate their 42nd and 44th wedding anniversaries. Linda and Mark Hooper navigated choppy seas in 14 mph winds as we tore downriver. It was a good dry run for Bob and Rachael Hooper, who are getting ready for a big cruise.
“We’re going around the world,” Bob began. “We fly to Los Angeles and pick up the ship there. It starts in Ft. Lauderdale and goes through the Panama Canel. We proceed to Hawaii and on to New Zealand and Australia. We expect to see Bora Bora, Singapore, Maylasia, Indonesia. Then on to Spain, Portugal and France before winding up in London.
“Only 900 people are on board the Viking cruise, which has 500 crew members. The average age is 55, and they guarantee no children. We’ll do 52 excursions along the way. We each chose from an extensive list and then compared notes to find that we agreed on 80 percent of them.
“It will cost $120,000 for the two of us, but it’s worth it. We’ll be sailing for four months, and the complete circumnavigation is six months. Better to do it now than wait. We’ll see things we never expected and couldn’t even imagine if we tried.” I wondered about making Cape Horn, and Bob said the ship could take it. Good luck with that. I suspect Viking calculated the best seasonal window to make the Cape and then backloaded the itinerary from there.
Carolina Sailors
Mother and daughter Tina and Regan Edwards visited Williamsburg from Ahoskie, NC, where they drive 3 hours twice a week to Nags Head to do housekeeping. They brought their dog Riley along for his first boat ride.
“We work the big houses in Corolla,” Tina explained, “five on Saturday and four on Sunday after people check out. Most people are very thoughtful, but you wouldn’t believe what some of them leave behind: Vomit on run, dog poop, diapers still in the wastebasket.
“We don’t work the mega-houses, the one named for writers like Mark Twain and Hemingway. Some of those run to 20 bedrooms. We do the houses on the lanes off the main roads, the ones that stretch along the beach. Sometimes people don’t realize that the tide is coming in and they get stranded. The tow trucks make a fortune down there.”
I asked if the bridge to Corolla is still in the works. “Oh yes, stretching for seven miles from the mainland. It will save us over an hour of drive time because now we have to go all the way down to the main bridge to Nags Head and back up the road to Corolla. It should start construction in 2025. Everything is all set, and it will be a toll road. But we’re happy to pay it.”
From the North Carolina Transportation Department:
The only highway crossing of the Currituck Sound along the North Carolina coast is the Wright Memorial Bridge on U.S. 158 at the southern end of Currituck County into Dare County.
The single crossing can mean increased congestion – especially during the summer – on U.S. 158 as well as N.C. 12, resulting in increased travel times between the mainland and the Outer Banks. Hurricane evacuation clearance times for those using U.S. 158 and N.C. 168 also far exceed the state-designated standard of 18 hours.
The Mid-Currituck Bridge project would create a second crossing of the sound – north of the Wright Memorial Bridge – to help alleviate congestion and improve the flow of evacuation traffic in the event of a hurricane or severe storm.
Women enjoy sailing today more than ever, and particularly a romantic cruise. Couples get to enjoy a romantic getaway as they sit up on the bow for privacy, and Let’s Go Sail provides professional photos for free. First-time or skilled mariners are welcome to sail a modern-32-foot sailboat in a unique setting of wildlife and Fall foliage or Spring bloom. It makes for an extraordinary anniversary idea.
Burial at Sea
Troi Shands took her Richmond family upriver to the Moton Center in Gloucester for a burial at sea of her dad Bill. She and her mom Sylvia Cahn dropped the biodegradable urn into the York near where the rest of the family was gathered. It was a somber moment for a fellow who loved the water and always wanted to get back to it. As the wind and the current moved along, the urn slowly floated toward shore until it finally sank.
On the way back, his grandson Keighton Bell got to run the boat under sail and heeled past 20 degrees. That was exciting.
Future Sailors II
Junior sailing is declining as a group sport for a variety of reasons. Kids have moved on to other sports, notably soccer, as more participatory and more fun.
On Long Beach Island off the New Jersey coast, a small club has worked to make juniors more active. Richard DeHart is a former commodore. He talked about it while taking his wife Karen sailing in brisk Fall winds.
“At Spray Beach Yacht Club, we’ve brought along juniors within the scope of the operation,” he said from the helm. “We have 600 members with 200 boats and a juniors program. Our director is a world-class sailor and former coach of the National Optimist team.”
From the club website:
Spray Beach Yacht Club’s Junior Program offers a summer of sailing, swimming, tennis and fun events. The Junior Program began in the 1920s, and since the 1930s has been a core part of our Club’s sailing heritage. The Junior Program today includes professional sailing and racing instruction as well as opportunities to develop swimming and tennis skills. SBYC also offers Member Families with younger children programs such as the Sand Crabs playgroup and Ducks, an introduction to sailing for ages 5-6.
The yacht club also does rescue work. “In a race, Hobies are the first to go over in 25 mph winds,” Rich explained. “We monitor the races and will rescue them, but once we touch them they’re out of the race. So we try to leave them alone. If they turtle into the mud, it’s that much harder to pull them up. Barnegat Bay is very shallow.”
While we were sailing, Rich took a call from his daughter. “I’m saaaailing,” he bellowed like Bill Murray in “What About Bob.” He added, “I’ll call you back.” She had fled St. Augustine ahead of Hurricane Milton, headed for the Alabama coastline. Karen said, “She has a friend whose family got the last plane out of Tampa before they shut down the airport. Tickets for four cost $6,000.”
Speaking of rescue, Rich continued. “My son-in-law’s grandfather flies small planes and once went down in the Caribbean. He simply lost power, so he deployed a big parachute to break the landing. A cruise ship passed by and saw him in a raft with the parachute draping the plane. It made quite a picture.”
Let’s Go Sail
Check “Book A Cruise” and pick a day for a sailboat charter. Scroll down reviews on Trip Advisor. Go back to the home page of Williamsburg Charter Sails.
The best Williamsburg boat tour offers safe sailing daily for up to 6 people. It’s an extraordinary experience for couples. Leave your worries behind. Enjoy the thrill of moving with the wind without a care in the world. Put life back on an even keel with a romantic experience for a birthday or anniversary. 3-hour sailboat cruise as a semi-private yachting charter lets you exhale and relax as you enjoy comfort, stability and speed.
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