Dolphins

Busy Sail

Dolphins explains how they are slowly returning to the York River.

Navy Sailing

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

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 VIMS

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 […]

Submarine Sighted

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 […]

35th Sail

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 […]

She Said Yes While Sailing

She Said Yes While Sailing

  Sometimes I get asked, “Do men propose to women on the boat?” Yes indeed. Brent Russell surprised his girlfriend Andrea Lefont with a sailing cruise on the York River, where he proposed marriage on the bow. She was stunned. He and I had arranged it so that we would sail downriver in brisk seas […]

Destroyers Compared

Destroyers Compared

Sometimes people ask, “Can you compare Navy ships?” Yes, but preferably in profile. On a whim, Daniel Katekovich took his bride Connie sailing along the York River on their 30th anniversary. She had never been on a sailboat before, “if you don’t count a small catamaran.” She did great as we zoomed across the river […]

Marry Me? Yes!

Marry Me? Yes!

People often ask, “Can I get married on a boat?” You bet. Ziquine Hopkins and Crystal Dorsy went on an evening cruise along the York where he proposed to her on the bow of the sailboat. She was totally surprised and slightly astonished that Zi had already told her family. The couple enjoyed a catered […]

Sailing the High Seas

Sailing the High Seas

People ask, “What’s it like to sail the high seas?” Two independent couples from New York and Virginia went sailing on the high seas of the York River as fresh easterly breezes provided a speedy route down river. In recent days the winds have been strong after a front blew through. By now they have […]