Sailing the Plains
Iowa is home to Big Ag, with some of the largest farms in the country spread over the Great Plains. Mitch and Connie Morrison of Mason City have a daughter who married into a farm family. They explained alternately what her life is like while sailing near Williamsburg on a breezy day. “They farm 10,000 […]
USS Cole Sails On
People ask, “Do you ever see the USS Cole?” While sailing the York River on a calm afternoon, the guided missile cruiser Cole transited the Coleman Bridge on the way from Norfolk to the Yorktown Naval Weapons Station. Kathy Hiles used to live nearby on the shores of Gloucester Point and was intrigued to see […]
Sailing Out of the Park
Alan and Val Domzalski of Gross Pointe Woods MI enjoyed a late afternoon sail on the York River with their pal Jeff Craig. Alan’s beverage company has a suite at Comerica Park, where they can watch the Tigers play in comfort. “The suite is beside home plate, looking down the first-base line. We’re there tomorrow […]
Spring Sail Class
Steady winds on the York River proved the perfect classroom for the first of three classes sponsored in the spring of 2015 by the Williamsburg Area Learning Tree. During an intense six hours, sailors rotated on the helm to learn the close reach, beam reach and broad reach. For the last, we deployed a colorful […]
Sailing Past Hugo
People ask, “What do you do in a hurricane?” “We learned how to make candles by cutting up shoelaces and dipping them in olive oil,” Karen recalled while sailing the York River. “A friend of ours got a call months later from someone who said, ‘Would you please come here and remove your boat from […]
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 the sight. They were in […]
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 had developed a successful advertising […]
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 sailing schools and charter boats […]
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 inadvertently taken it off his […]
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 Squall, starring Jeff Bridges, ranks […]
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 spotted frolicking a half-mile south […]
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. JoJo is one of 50 […]
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 13 knots on the open […]
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, and run. All four of […]
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. But because of the steep […]
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 Bobby Kennedy, since I had […]
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 that blew the ship onto […]
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. “No siblings allowed to leave […]
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 Molly texted her a photo […]
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 mast) is faster than the […]