Spinn Sail
Question: How do you sail when the wind seemingly dies? Answer: You don’t, unless you run downwind with a spinnaker. Background: Three hours of sailing on the York River usually involves tacking back and forth into the wind as we make way eastward in a zig-zag down the river. We are sailing off the wind […]
York tugboats
Up and down the York River, tugboats provide safe and secure transit for ships. The biggest clients are Navy warships, which usually take one and sometimes two tugs to push and prod into port at Yorktown Naval Weapons Station. The current is wicked, aggravated by the 2-foot tide. Moran Towing gets that job done, using […]
Mindfulness through sailing
A special impact of sailing is the new rubric of mindfulness. It is simply abandoning one’s worries of the day in the moment of appreciation—while under sail. Call it Zen. Other modern concepts of psychology termed this The Zone. Writers get into The Zone when they find themselves caught up in their text, moving quickly and effortlessly […]
Sailing with Experience
In the annals of “Sailing Fails” there lies the successful outcome of a bad situation. While sailing the York River on a magnificent day with his wife and family, Bob Benton recalled his sailing experience from long ago. “We had 20 people on a 27-foot sailboat, if you can imagine that. Seven of them were […]
Sailing the Union Label
On this warm day of mild winds, we encountered a coincidence. America’s labor unions have shrunk drastically in the past 50 years, so it was a surprise to encounter three people affiliated with disparate unions. Scott Weiler clarified that he isn’t in the union but contracts with the Painters Union of Cincinnati. His wife Jennifer is […]
Boating Fails and Tales
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlEdBRv7B-k “We went offshore in New Jersey looking for bait fish,” said Colleen McGowan while taking her children for a sailing lesson on the York River. Hers is the first of several bizarre boating tales this season encountered by Let’s Go Sail. “We ran into a crowd of fish so great that it felt like there […]
Happiness on a sailboat
Happiness on a sailboat comes in many forms. There is first of all the sheer joy of running a boat on the wind. With a few minutes training behind the wheel, anyone can enjoy the sensation of guiding a sailboat through the waves. Boats steer like cars except that the “wheels” are in the back […]
Living and Boating Along the Intercoastal
An experienced boating couple who spent decades on various cruisers and motor yachts got to go sailing for the first time. Charles Grimes took Tammy Bell and her parents JoAnne and Tom Bell sailing on the York River, and they loved it. The Bells found it exciting in a brisk wind of 15 mph that […]
Sailing into USCG Smoke
While sailing the York River with Kevin and Jennifer Brown and their children, we spotted a rare exercise by the US Coast Guard of deploying flares and smoke simultaneously. It was very dramatic and colorful and lasted all of a minute. The exercise is rare on the York River because the very sight of the bright […]
Growing Up Cruising on Chesapeake Bay
Everyone has a recollection about their childhood boating experiences. Valerie Axel recalls fondly growing up on Chesapeake Bay as a continuous adventure. She related her story while sailing the York River with her husband Neil on a magnificent spring afternoon. “We spent the summers cruising the Bay in my father’s 48-foot Chris Craft. He was […]
