Captain's Blog

Opening Day 2018 Sailing Season

Opening Day 2018 Sailing Season

Two couples from metro Richmond enjoyed opening day of the 2018 sailing season with a three-hour cruise in brisk winds and sunny skies. They alternated sitting up on the bow, where excitement meets romantic contemplation. Amy Lane took her beau Steve Litton sailing on his 42nd birthday. He said, “The

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The Expanding Blaze

The Expanding Blaze

Before and after the final victory at Yorktown, the American Revolution was the first of a series of world-shaking democratic revolutions that swept the Atlantic World in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Radical ideas of self-government, liberty, and republicanism challenged the Old World institutions of monarchy, aristocracy, and religious authority,

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Sail Annapolis

Sail Annapolis

On the way to St. Michael’s, we stopped off in Annapolis to check on the Back Creek side of town. Annapolis bills itself as America’s Sailing Capital with a tradition of centuries behind it. Everywhere you turn, nautical terms and the boats they refer to are found all over town.

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Sailing Past Thanksgiving

Sailing Past Thanksgiving

The cruising season winds up by mid-November, but I held off until after Thanksgiving to take Adam Six of Charlotte NC and his girlfriend on a surprise sail for her. Lennie Gorman was recovering from shoulder surgery, and Adam was on leave from Afghanistan. He said, “I work in maintenance

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Revolution Against Empire

Revolution Against Empire

People ask, “How does Yorktown fit into the American Revolution?” In “Revolution Against Empire: Taxes, Politics and the Origins of American Independence,” Justin du Rivage argues that the American Revolution was about more than “no taxation without representation.” He argues that the violent break between Great Britain and its colonies stemmed

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Last, Great Sail

Last, Great Sail

  The last sail of the regular season came to a stunning end with a couple from suburban Philadelphia enjoying a great sail on the York River. “This time last week we were sailing in Massachusetts Bay with my brother on his 44-foot boat,” said Sam November. “Now here we

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Team-Building Sail

Viva La France!

One afternoon on a blustery fall day, a young couple took their three children sailing for the first time. Xavier Larbarriere serves as a colonel in the French Army, assigned to NATA at Norfolk Naval Base. He enjoyed seeing the US Navy sub through the binoculars. “You know,” he told

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Team-Building Sail

Team-Building Sail

A small company in Roanoke chose Let’s Go Sail to work on team-building. They got a full day of activities in half a day on the waters of the York River. Bright blue skies enhanced blustery winds of 10 mph and seas rising and falling two feet. Their assignment was

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Navy Sails Past Coleman Bridge

Navy Sails Past Coleman Bridge

  Seen alone or in profile, all Navy ships look big. When seen while transiting the Coleman Bridge at Yorktown, the differences become acute. Here is the passage this week of the USS Mesa Verde, a San Antonio-class landing ship dock. It’s used to land a battalion of 800 Marines

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Old Salt, Back on the Water

Old Salt

  People ask, “Do you ever get old salts?” After the rain cleared out unexpectedly, two friends from years ago went sailing on the York River to recreate the scene from down east Maine. Kay McLeod came up from North Carolina to take her mentor and pal Carol Haussermann out

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