Captain's Blog

Army Ship Maneuvering

Navigating a Career

People ask, “What’s with the Army’s Navy?” Ft. Eustis is home to the “Army’s Navy,” where soldiers learn everything from becoming a stevedore to captaining a boat. Donald Topping explained while sailing the York. Tens of millions of dollars have been invested to teach 27 discrete programs to Army troops

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Summer of Dolphins

Sailing with Dolphins

Dolphins showed up late in the season in the York River, with a pod of seven bobbing for 20 minutes near the entrance of the channel to Sarah Creek. Adrienne and Ben Johnson of St. Paul, Minnesota, took their family sailing on a breezy fall afternoon and were wowed by

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Sailing Later

Linda Louise Stamper of Indianapolis and her beau Scott dated a few times in high school before graduating in 1960 and going their separate ways to marry and raise families. Years later their spouses passed away. Scott related while sailing the York River how he caught up with Linda, who

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Sailing with Swashbucklers

People ask, “How did you get trained?” Dedicated mariners traveled to the Annapolis Sailing School in the summer of 2014 from as far as Maine, Los Angeles and Atlanta to qualify for the American Sailing Association’s higher level of instruction in Coastal Navigation and Coastal Cruising. Many of them run

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Sailing Crazy

“Right out of college, I worked for the state of New Hampshire under Governor Mel Thomson. He was crazy. One time he shut down the entire state government so everyone could search for his favorite pen because he lost it. He found out the next day that his brother had

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White Squall among top sailing movies

Best Sailing Movies

People often ask, “What are the best sailing movies?” Geni and John’s Nautical web page ranks hundreds of movies going back to the 1930s. Dead Calm is a thriller starring Nicole Kidman. It was filmed almost entirely at sea and presents accurately the difficulty of navigating under terrible conditions. White

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Army Ship Maneuvering

Back to the Bay

Kelly Mikeselle took her family from Indiana on a sightseeing sail June 24, and they got to see dolphins in the York River. It’s the earliest that dolphin have arrived, since they usually show up with the warmer water in August. The river is already 80 degrees. Three fish were

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Sailing to Security

“My husband I operate a hardware and country store way outside Richmond. One night after dark as we were preparing to leave, a deputy raced up with his emergency lights on, and I thought, ‘Good, they saw our store lights and responded to check on us.’ My husband was fixing

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Sailing with Foodies

Mike and Kate Cash of Kansas City enjoyed their honeymoon sailing on the York River. They are avid cooks and devotees of the Food Channel, where they follow acclaimed Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten. By sheer luck, we also took aboard Kathi and Chef Ron Gallo of JoJo Restaurant in New York.

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Sailing for Show

“Whenever we do an evolution [event] of 15 or 20 ships at sea, we have to take photos to show the formations and the ships. Sometimes we have to get within 400 yards with ships on each side to get good photos, and that’s difficult to do while moving at

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Learning to Sail

People ask, “Is it hard to learn to sail?” Check out the video below. The Green family of Carrollton spent two rigorous days at SailTime Virginia Beach learning the ropes and much more. They became proficient in all five sail reaches of close haul, close reach, beam reach, broad reach,

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Mexico Sailor

Mexico Sailor

Jerry Lafferty of Cincinnati and Puerto Vallarta went sailing with his brother Ed Lafferty and Ed’s wife Chris on a magnificent day on the York River. Jerry spends six months on the coast of the Mexican beach resort, whose population has skyrocketed from 5,000 to 250,000. Homes sell for millions.

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Sailing to a Robbery

People ask, “Do guests share harrowing stories?” “My daughter Erin had started work as a bank teller. She had her head down when she felt round, cold steel right here.” Mary Baldwin pointed to her forehead. “Then a man in a mask said, ‘Push that button, Bitch, and you’re dead!

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Sailing Politically

In 1973, “I was a lawyer and had just moved to Virginia Beach from New York,” said Stuart Gordon while sailing on the York River. “I interviewed with a law firm in Norfolk, to help cover for Henry Howell who was on the road a lot. He asked me about

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They Met in Jail

Grounded Out Back People who love boats imagine having one in their back yard, but not quite like this. Last spring, Lola and Stuart Gordon found this 756-foot freighter run aground outside their third-story condo in Virginia Beach. “We had a nor’easter with winds up to 70 miles an hour

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Sailing from Saigon

People ask, “Where’s the farthest that people have come to sail?” Hue and Hung Ngo of Fairfax took their 9-year-old son sailing on a quiet day on the York River, long removed from their native Vietnam. They emigrated in the mid-1990s after eight years of processing by the communist government.

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Sailing Reminiscence

“My mom grew up near the water in Massachusetts,” said Molly Warmbein while sailing the York River on a brisk afternoon. “She used to go down to her father’s sailboat every day after school and sit on the bow to do her homework. I think she still misses sailing.” So

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Sailing to Jamestown

People ask, “Is Jamestown worth visiting?” “Emma’s third-grade teacher led us to go to Historic Jamestowne, with her enthusiasm for the nation’s founding,” said Christine Erickson as her four children scampered about the boat while sailing the York River. Unbeknownst to them, Jamestown and Colonial Williamsburg have invested heavily to

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Sailing with Bernoulli

I get asked all the time, “How does a sailboat sail against the wind?” Albeit counterintuitive, sailboats have to stay close to the angle of the wind to get the most power and speed. It’s explained by Bournelli’s Principle in which air going over one surface of an object (the

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Sailing into Genealogy

People ask, “Do you do family reunions?” Michael and Julie Curnick of rural Tennessee traveled to Ireland recently. They went for a reunion of family members from all over the globe. Here they went sailing along the York River with their son and his friends. Julie related how many of

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