Navigating a Career
People ask, “What’s with the Army’s Navy?” Ft. Eustis is home to the “Army’s Navy,” where soldiers learn everything from becoming a stevedore to captaining a boat. Donald Topping explained while sailing the York. Tens of millions of dollars have been invested to teach 27 discrete programs to Army troops and Navy SEALS. “We owe […]
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 […]
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 to Church
Newlyweds Angela and Josh Purdy just moved to Seaford from rural Indiana and are thinking of buying a sailboat. They spent the afternoon learning how to sail while zipping along the York River in a brisk breeze. They found it exhilarating and easier than they had imagined. And they learned how to “see” an approaching […]
