My favorite cruise is the Bachelorette Sail, and this one was the best for its sheer creativity. Emily Claar’s mom Christina Claar outfitted 15 young women in creative shirts, sashes and hats for a 3-hour adventure on the York River.
Only six took the cruise as the others stayed back at the restaurant bar with their T-shirts, “Best Sail Before the Veil.” Another Emily took the helm and held on tight as the boat rocked in 15-mph winds.
Women enjoy sailing today more than ever, and particularly a romantic cruise.
Couples get to enjoy a romantic getaway as they sit up on the bow for privacy, and Let’s Go Sail provides professional photos for free. First-time or skilled mariners are welcome to sail a modern-32-foot sailboat in a unique setting of wildlife and Fall foliage or Spring bloom. It makes for an extraordinary anniversary idea.
Newbie Sail
Katie Gorycki traveled from Ossining NY to Gloucester to visit her brother Steve, who just retired here from Las Vegas. He bought a house with a boat lift on Carter Creek, perhaps the best idea a future boater ever had.
Katie heads up religious education for a big Catholic Church in Ossining. “My connection to sailing is through Pete Seeger. He organized a group called Clearwater (after the name of his sloop) to clean up the Hudson River. That led to small groups up and down the Hudson that take people out to learn. It’s called Ferry Sloops. My volunteer job is to fund-raise. So, whenever they have a crew opening, they take me free as a benefactor.”
Kentucky Sailors
While visiting Williamsburg from Kentucky, Amber and Travis Smith took their three children out on the York for a sailing adventure. It recalled the last time they were onboard a boat.
“It was a big squall off Myrtle Beach,” Travis said. “The waves made the boat go up and down, slapping the sea hard. It was a big motorboat with maybe 200 people. The storm lasted only 20 minutes, but people were miserable and vomiting as the boat leaned back and forth. So we had to come in. As consolation, they gave us lifetime tickets to go again.”
Travis spent 22 years as a federal corrections officer. I posited that it didn’t make sense in “The Shawshank Redemption” for the poster of Raquel Welch to be pinned over the escape hole since there was no way for the escapee to do that. “That’s not all,” Travis said. “Any guard would have noticed the poster moving back and forth because of air pressure behind it. And there are no posters in federal prisons. They aren’t allowed to put anything up.”
Richmond Sailors
A couple from suburban Richmond went sailing on the York on a cloudy, cool and breezy morning. Kimberly Gryder helmed at southwest wind under the Coleman Bridge toward not one but two US Navy warships at the Yorktown Naval Weapons Station.
Her husband Ray commented on the Spotify playlist. “Our son just got into the Richmond Youth Orchestra. He’s been playing the violin — by ear — for only two years. He auditioned once and got in. His piano teacher told us, ‘Gabe has it all. He can read music, he can play music, and he can write music.’ As for college, he’s looking at Curtis Institute of Musichttps://www.curtis.edu/ in Philadelphia, where Leonard Bernstein went. Gabe is 13.”
We got close to the two Navy ships but not close enough to draw the harbor security patrol boat. “My uncle served in the Navy,” Ray said. “He thought that would be safe, but they volunteered him to serve on a PT boat in the Delta. He talked once — and only once — about an incident.
“‘We were on patrol in the river in the pitch dark of night when multiple B-52 bombers came in overhead and dropped their bombs. It lit up the sky like daytime, exposing our position. Then we started taking small arms fire since they could see our profile plainly in the light. We hightailed out of there!’
“Years later, my uncle was on the Air Force flight delivering Marines to Lebanon, who subsequently got killed in the terrorist attack on the Beirut barracks in 1982. He thought long and hard about that, having taken them there.”
Kim held her helm nicely and turned to gybe to avoid our bow crossing that of the Navy ships. She zoomed under the bridge this time, thanks to an outgoing tide.
Bachelorette II
Her girlfriends organized a clever Bachelorette Sail for Alison Deverensky, who’s getting married next month and holding the reception at the Harrisburg Country Club in Pennsylvania. She’s a graduate of the Seamaster Course and longed to get back on the water.
As she took the helm adroitly, Alison said, “It was a six-week course with 20 students and 17 crew. We flew to American Samoa and eventually sailed to New Zealand. The research included microplastics, biology, fish migration and more. Mine was about the dances of Polynesia as a means of communication.
“I got to run the helm while on JWO, which is Junior Watch Officer. For 24 hours, each student runs the wheel, schedules the crew, notifies them for meals, relieves the crew at intervals, and keeps track of everything. It was very hard.”
Any storms? “Yes, we had a big one that hit in the middle of the night and surprised us. We had trouble furling in the giant jib while we were heeling like this (motions sideways). There was no warning, and the night watch was probably dozing. Luckily, I was not the JWO then.”
The ladies tacked down river amid drinks and laughter as Alison held the ship steady.
Let’s Go Sail
Check Couples and Family rates and pick a day for a sailboat charter. Scroll down reviews on Trip Advisor. Go back to the home page of Williamsburg Charter Sails.
The best Williamsburg boat tour offers safe “social distance sailing” daily for up to 6 people. It’s an extraordinary experience for couples. Leave your worries behind. Enjoy the thrill of moving with the wind without a care in the world. Put life back on an even keel with a romantic experience for a birthday or anniversary. 3-hour sailboat cruise as a semi-private yachting charter lets you exhale and relax as you enjoy comfort, stability and speed.
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