Sailing Memories

Memories of sailing are vivid but not always pleasant. While tacking downriver on the York with Doug and Stephanie Gwilliam of San Diego, David Rane recalled the time he and his wife Mary Beth went out on a skippered boat in Washington State. “It was a howling wind and raining sideways, so I assumed we […]

Exciting Sailing

Two couples from Delaware enjoyed an exciting sail in brisk winds on the York River with their grown children. Jeff and Barbara Wesson are from Georgetown, and Brenda and Al Ebert are from Bowers. The Eberts live within view of the Delaware Bay and are used to high winds and waves. >Bowers is a small […]

Sailing to Oblivion

As you go sailing to Oblivion, you can name your boat almost anything except Mayday and Vessel In Distress. As long as it will make sense when hailing the Coast Guard on marine radio, they don’t care. Amusement arise when one tries to hail Tow Boat US three times on Channel 16, because it sounds […]

Success Story Sailing

Phyllis Glass of Columbia, PA, was sailing with us with her husband Gary. She recalled a harrowing counterpoint. “Our daughter-in-law is a parole officer for juveniles in Lancaster. They had to move her from an office in the courthouse to the school so she could be closer to the parolees. She wears a bulletproof vest.” […]

Sailing Healthy

Sailing brings out the best in people, including how they became healthy. Diane and Jim Glassmeyer of Marion, Ohio, joined two other couples on a brisk run along the York River, where she told a compelling story. “I was a corporate vice president for a big media company, proficient on both the radio and newspaper […]

Extreme Sailing

Three days of rain on the York drove nearly everyone off the river. On the other side of the world, eight international teams raced in St. Petersburg, Russia for the sixth stop on the 2015 Extreme Sailing Series™ eight Act global tour. After four days of racing in the heart of St. Petersburg, it was […]

Immigration Waters

If you think immigration reform is controversial in America, try Canada. Susan McBride Friesen is a lawyer/lobbyist for the Canadian mushroom industry, and she regaled us while sailing with her husband Larry and his brother and wife. “Canada allows visiting immigrants to stay five years legally, and then they have to go back to their […]

Mayday on the York

While taking two couples from Richmond sailing in the afternoon on the York River, we heard a mayday emergency call. It was a motorboat taking on water. As other boats came to assist, we learned that the water had submerged the engine halfway and killed it. Eventually the York County fire boat came and boarded […]

Battle of 1813

Tom and Veronica Friesen of Windsor, Ontario, went sailing on a history cruise of the York River with his brother Larry and wife Susan, where they regaled us with their participation in the bicentennial of the Battle of 1813 on Lake Erie. “It was a huge rendezvous of tall ships and battleships of the period, […]

Sailing their Careers

Two dynamic couples visiting Williamsburg from Greensboro took a short sailing vacation on the York River. Having never been on a sailboat before, they did a fabulous job running the rig, raising the spinnaker, and conducting a man overboard exercise to rescue a hat—my hat actually. We saw a half dozen dolphin, who trailed the […]