New Sailors

While sailing in a wonderful breeze, I explained to the Bartlett family of Minnesota how the Coleman Bridge met deadline when it was replaced over the York River between Yorktown and Gloucester Point. For a detailed look at the history of the bridge, check out the video below. Mike Bartlett served in the “Brown Navy” […]

Night Sailing

      Certain navigation lights have to be turned on at night depending on whether you’re sailing or anchored. These lights do not impinge on the dark magnificence of sailing beneath millions of stars on a crystal clear night. But crab pots do. These pesky lines are connected to cages usually found in 10-15 […]

Lights for Sailboats

Learn to Sail

The US Coast Guard has developed an elaborate scheme of navigation lights for boats and sailboats of all sizes on the York River and around the world. Thay way, everyone  can recognize each other at night and tell what direction they’re going. The easiest example is the one here of a sailboat with red, green […]

Sailing War Stories

People ask while sailing the York River how Gen. George Washington could communicate with Admiral Francoise DeGrasse in the Caribbean to get the French fleet here. Much it transpired by letters sent by couriers on single-mast sloops that could go faster than conventional warships. Frigates with two masts comprised sloops. The most famous early sloop […]

Father’s Day Sail

Thom MacDonnell took his wife Kaja and friends out on the York River for a glorious Father’s Day cruise on a 32-foot boat that Bill O’Donovan operates as Williamsburg Charter Sails. Thom won the cruise during the annual auction held to benefit the Williamsburg Kiwanis Foundation. (Father’s Day Sail) This is a rare use of […]

Building a Sailboat

People ask, “Is it hard to build a sailboat?” They find it surprising to learn how to do it, at least in the factory. It takes fabrication, in three parts. The fiberglass hull is laid up with a mold, and the interior gets built separately. They add parts inside and out until the decking drops […]

American Hero

  George Washington secured his place as an American hero at Yorktown, where Continental and French troops beat the best Army and biggest Navy in the world. Patty DeMuth knows that well, as she related while sailing the York River with her family in the shadow of the battlefield. “I’m a direct descendant of Washington’s […]

Mariner Spectrum

  Two ends of the mariner spectrum were captured in a sea change along the York River. A waterman sets up for the day to harvest oysters off the river bed while the destroyer USS Mitscher transits toward the Coleman Bridge and Yorktown Naval Weapons Station. The Mitscher was the Navy’s official welcoming ship when […]

Girl Talk

Bachelorette party

Sometimes the best place on a sailboat for girl talk can be the bow. Out there, with the boat slicing through the waves, one can find solitude to scrutinize nature and wind up falling asleep. Or you can hold a private conversation. Here, Ashley and Andrea Kieffer of Shawnee, Kansas, enjoy some girl time while […]

First Hot Shot

Sailing Do's & Don't's

Early during the Siege of Yorktown in October 1781 the French got the bold idea of heating solid cannonballs red hot and firing them at a ship. They succeeded by arcing at least three balls a mile away toward the HMS Charon, the 44-gun lead ship of Lord Cornwallis, anchored in front of what is […]