Salvage After Storm
People wonder, “Can you salvage a boat after a storm?” The threat of Hurricane Irma loomed large and led to a bevy of oil tankers showing up in the York River. We went sailing on a bright and beautiful day with two delightful couples. A key element was wondering about salvage after storm. Let’s go […]
Navy Sailing
oh On a warm, breezy morning a newlywed couple from Louisville KY took their honeymoon cruise on the York River. Stephen Bacher explained that Rachel Kinser was planning to sail down the Mississippi River in a year or so. “I’d like to be married with her long enough before she dies,” he joked. Rachel is […]
Baby Sail
A couple recently relocated to Charlottesville took two sailing sessions on the York River. They got to see the USS Monterey at Yorktown, where it’s doing maneuvers for a month. Kyle and Madison Robinson were pretty ambitious, since she’s eight months pregnant. “I’m due in a month and I’m ready,” she said midway through a […]
Sailing by Lights
On certain rivers and in certain bays, the US Coast Guard services navigation lights that show the range of a particular channel. Hence the term range lights and why we go sailing by the lights. Together, the tall light is out of sequence with the short light as they blink on and off 24/7. The […]
Dangerous Sail
A family visiting from Minnesota got the ride of their lives when they endured 20 mph winds on the York River. I took Eh Xiong and his wife and daughter to the lee side of the Coleman Bridge, where 2-foot waves were more like 1 foot and the wind was easier to manage. This was […]
Sailing by VIMS
To avoid a rainout, Bentley Streat of nearby Hayes went a day early to take her family sailing on the York. Her sister Linda Shaffron works at nearby VIMS, or Virginia Institute of Marine Science. “Ours is the largest facility in America focused on estuarine research,” said said proudly. Estuarine as in estuary, as Chesapeake […]
Multiple Sails
Home Again During multiple sails, the cable-laying USNS Zeus returned to Cheatham Annex after many months at sea in the Atlantic. The Zeus lays hundreds of miles of intel cable as deep as 9,000 feet. It’s the only ship in its class because the sister ship never got built. It looks like an old hospital […]
Submarine Sighted
While exiting Sarah Creek with a couple from Phoenix AZ, I heard a radio call on Channel 16: “White hull sailboat in the York River, this is the United States Navy warning about an approaching submarine.” I looked around and saw two Moran tugboats rumbling upriver toward the Coleman Bridge, but no submarine. The radio […]
Secrets to Getting Married on a Sailboat
I get asked, “Are their secrets to getting married on a sailboat?” Let’s go sail the York River, where couples enjoy a serene three hours. Getting married in a unique setting is all the rage, whether on top of a mountain or in a canyon. These “venue weddings” are big in Williamsburg, where you […]
35th Sail
Greg and Leslie Galland of Williamsburg celebrated their wedding anniversary as a 35th sail by cruising in brisk winds on the York. The 29+ mph winds of the previous day died down to a manageable 12-15, but we still had to reef both sails. We got far enough down river to see a giant oil […]
