Sailing with Patriot Pirates
Then.People ask, “What’s with the pirates?” The Battle of the Capes was a classic sea battle. Not so the battles by pirates. George H. Patton’s “Patriot Pirates: The Privateer War for Freedom and Fortune in the American Revolution” presents another story. Here is the tale of America’s insurgency against the British merchant ships and Navy. […]
Sailing with Scholars
And A lovely couple from Annapolis went sailing near Williamsburg for their first anniversary. And it was a joy to go sailing with scholars. “This was a total surprise,” said Sara Crouser as she boarded the boat with her husband Mark. “He can never keep a secret, so this is really special. Plus he knows […]
Burial at Sea
People ask, “Do you conduct burials at sea?” A funeral is hardly a fun thing to do on vacation, but it can be exciting. The Novy siblings gathered from all over the country to make the most of a melancholy situation as they buried their brother at sea. “This is the second service in […]
Sailing to Modernity
I get asked, “What’s with all these bridges?” Two things we take for granted in Tidewater Virginia are weather and bridges. I was explaining to two couples from Norfolk that I get people from all over the country for whom the weather is not a big news story but a big tragedy. You name it: […]
Voyager Canoe
This is the second week of the Polynesian Voyager Canoe visiting Yorktown. John Raines of York River Yacht Haven was there for the creation. He joined the Williamsburg Area Learning Tree for a six-hour training day. “I was 20 years old in 1970 when they launched the Hokule-a in Hawaii. It was recreated to demonstrate […]
Bay Sailing
Two experienced sailors from Boston blew into Tidewater for a government contract job and chose to go Bay sailing with SailTime of Virginia Beach as a fun thing to do. That worked out well because Paul Metzger is a SailTime member who also has his 33-foot Hunter in charter with the Boston franchise. “They assign […]
Algonquin Round Table
During my newspaper career in Williamsburg, our daughters came to work occasionally after school. The company was a family-friendly place where kids learned to get organized and help out. It was kind of like sailing. Some children learned to type there. The risk was that a soda would spill on the keyboard, but it was […]
Ninth Anniversary Sail
Having never been to Williamsburg before, Brian and Meg Scoggins of Chattanooga set out on a ninth anniversary sail by venturing out on the historic York River in brisk winds rising to 15 mph. Brian had never sailed before, but he had gained some visual experience playing Empire Total War. That’s a popular video game that assigns […]
Teachers Sail
Two school teachers from Sunfield, Michigan went on their first extensive sailboat trip by venturing out into the York River on a warm and windy spring afternoon. Because the winds were coming from the south, we were able to cut through the waves and reach the “lee shore,” next to the Yorktown Battlefield, where the […]
Sailing with FDR
Before Jack Kennedy made sailing glamorous, Franklin Delano Roosevelt enjoyed it as an elegant pastime. His uncle John Roosevelt was a noted sailor who developed a large ice sailboat to run up and down the Hudson River from the family estate at Hyde Park. It was so fast that he could outrun trains along the […]
