Love is better the second time around, and so is sailing. Carol Logue and John Campbell of suburban Richmond reprised their cruise from August on a much cooler and blustery day along the York River. Winds out of the east grew from 10 mph to 15 mph as we sailed
Drivers love to personalize their license plates, and that includes sailors. Virginia is a happy state of boating plates. Personalizing is inexpensive and very creative. The most popular plate replicates that of the owner’s boat, although sometimes that’s a mystery to the rest of the drivers on the road. We
Here’s how to measure a sail for replacement. The easy fix is to measure the old sail, but that’s flawed by stretching and shrinking. Plus all three corners have to be pulled tight to get the truth. The only accurate way is to measure the mast and boom. Even then,
A young couple from metro New York took their friends sailing on the York River along with their dog Liberty. Meg Kelly said, “Liberty is mix of lab, boxer, pit bull and more. We’re not sure exactly because she’s a rescue dog. We thought of getting a second dog and
To narrate the Battle of the Capes, I pick out a sailboat in the distance that’s moving at a right angle to us. The idea is to show the “vanguard” strategy of how ships fought at sea in the 18th century. Reggie Jackson went sailing with family and friends along
Two experienced sailors on two separate sails proved that you don’t have to teach any tricks to a not-so-old salt. Linda Mauer visited the Williamsburg area with her husband and wanted to get back into sailing after 20 years. “I worked in SAR with the Coast Guard years ago,” she
A couple from Northern Virginia came to Williamsburg for the weekend to go sailing for the first time. They wound up getting a baptism of sail spray. Julie Koontz gave her husband Mike a unique birthday present of sailing the York River. On a bright, sunny day with steady
Jane Kamensky’s, “A Revolution in Color: The World of John Singleton Copley,” paints a vivid portrait of the artist during the Revolutionary period. Best known for his portraits of Paul Revere, John Hancock and Samuel Adams, John Singleton Copley did not share their revolutionary zeal.In the aftermath of the Boston
A most unusual party of women went sailing on a bright and breezy day on the York River. Sarah Merwin said, “We are with a nonprofit that supports spouses who have lost a loved one in the military. Not all of us here are widows, some are friends and supporters.”
ai Monday is often arrival day for warships transiting from Norfolk Naval Base to Yorktown Naval Weapons Station. A family visiting Williamsburg from the Finger Lakes region of New York rode out on Sarah Creek in great anticipation. Right away we ran into a pod of dolphins in the creek.
A lovely couple from landlocked Staunton, Virginia, came to Let’s Go Sail on a beautiful Friday to learn the fundamentals. Kelly and Todd Armentrout once sailed on a Hobie Cat and found they love the idea of being out on the water, in the elements of the wind. They
Boating and sailing are primarily leisure activities, and many people thus treat it differently than driving a car. For anyone operating the boat, however, the responsibilities should be taken seriously. This is especially so when it comes to drinking or using drugs. The operator of a boat or a jet
An unusual sight confronted commuters over the Coleman Bridge. As the Navy warship Laboon exited the Yorktown Naval Weapons Station, it passed the Navy’s cable-laying USS Zeus just below the Coleman Bridge, off Yorktown. The Zeus was coming into Cheatham Annex after a six-month deployment in the Atlantic. The
People ask, “Can you get a photo of a Navy ship coming through the Coleman Bridge?” A Houston couple left on vacation after Hurricane Harvey and arrived in Virginia in time for the remnants of Hurricane Irma. The resulting sail on the York River was much more pleasant and quite
With the threat of Hurricane Irma looming and amid a bevy of oil tankers that showed up in the York River, we went sailing on a bright and beautiful day with two delightful couples. Julio Pons and his wife took their friends Steve and Bridgette Perry sailing so they could
Hurricanes such as Harvey, Irma and Jose inspire anxiety among sailors. In describing how to survive a sailboat emergency, these are ranked not by worst case downward because all of them are bad scenarios. Instead, they are ranked by degree of likelihood-to-happen, with the top categories representing the least likely
A rare work of art blew into Sara Creek at Gloucester Point with the arrival last week of a 1926 Herreshoff sailboat. The name is famous as the manufacturer of America’s Cup boats going back a century or more. The Herreshoff Marine Museum in Bristol, Rhode Island, heralds the sailboats and
“I was a slug, I’ve ridden with slugs, and I’ve driven with slugs.” So claimed Steve Relitz as we sailed an adventure on the York River with his mother and siblings on the occasion of his brother Sam’s 27th birthday. Steve lives in Stafford County, just outside Fredericksburg, and commutes
Linda Nay of Henrico took her family sailing on a misty afternoon that led to sprinkles on and off. “We don’t mind,” her husband Kent said. “We’re outdoor people and like all kinds of activity, even when the weather isn’t perfect.” The simply wanted to sail a new river.
A couple from Leesburg and a family from all over Virginia coincidentally went sailing on the York River on a blustery, overcast day. Sara Bailey took the helm and managed very well despite rising seas in winds blowing around 10 mph. We headed across the river and then turned