Sailing Past 2 Navy Ships
ai Monday is often arrival day for warships transiting from Norfolk Naval Base to Yorktown Naval Weapons Station. A family visiting Williamsburg from the Finger Lakes region of New York rode out on Sarah Creek in great anticipation. Right away we ran into a pod of dolphins in the creek. Apparently the high seas churned […]
Courageous Captains Sailing
Exactly one year later, retired Navy Capt. Terry Culton and his wife Helen returned to sail the York River, this time with friends Mike and Debbie Decicco. Unlike last year when the winds were flat, they piped up quickly to 12-15 mph. So we reefed both sails. The couples were in town for a […]
York tugboats
Up and down the York River, tugboats provide safe and secure transit for ships. The biggest clients are Navy warships, which usually take one and sometimes two tugs to push and prod into port at Yorktown Naval Weapons Station. The current is wicked, aggravated by the 2-foot tide. Moran Towing gets that job done, using […]
Boating Fails and Tales
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlEdBRv7B-k “We went offshore in New Jersey looking for bait fish,” said Colleen McGowan while taking her children for a sailing lesson on the York River. Hers is the first of several bizarre boating tales this season encountered by Let’s Go Sail. “We ran into a crowd of fish so great that it felt like there […]
The Future of Sailing
The future of the world and the future of sailing are in good hands with young people, judging by back-to-back experiences with two families. Lauren Edwards took her family out from Williamsburg, where they were holding a small family reunion on vacation. Members came from three corners of Virginia: Blacksburg, Virginia Beach and Alexandria. Even […]
Sailing Surprise
Jenny and Rey Mendez of New York City surprised his parents and their three children with a sailing cruise on the York River. They thought they were going to Jamestown. The parents took off for town, while we went sailing and had a lot of fun. Their older son Steven was delighted because he earned […]
Sailing the Gamut
You could say we went Sailing the Gamut, with every conceivable experience on the York River except one. In light but steady winds, the entire Shields family of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, chipped in to help fly the spinnaker. I don’t normally do that on a hot day because the going downwind on the spin […]
Sailing to Surprise
Ashley Greer took her parents, who live in North Carolina, sailing for the first time as a surprise birthday present for her dad. He wondered if they might be going roller skating. Instead, they enjoyed a brisk cruise on the York River near Yorktown. Ashley is studying for her doctorate in applied behavior analysis at […]
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 […]
