Sailing to Security
“My husband I operate a hardware and country store way outside Richmond. One night after dark as we were preparing to leave, a deputy raced up with his emergency lights on, and I thought, ‘Good, they saw our store lights and responded to check on us.’ My husband was fixing to leave and the two […]
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 […]
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 a Robbery
People ask, “Do guests share harrowing stories?” “My daughter Erin had started work as a bank teller. She had her head down when she felt round, cold steel right here.” Mary Baldwin pointed to her forehead. “Then a man in a mask said, ‘Push that button, Bitch, and you’re dead! Give me all the money.’ […]
Sailing from Saigon
People ask, “Where’s the farthest that people have come to sail?” Hue and Hung Ngo of Fairfax took their 9-year-old son sailing on a quiet day on the York River, long removed from their native Vietnam. They emigrated in the mid-1990s after eight years of processing by the communist government. “No siblings allowed to leave […]
Sailing with Bernoulli
I get asked all the time, “How does a sailboat sail against the wind?” Albeit counterintuitive, sailboats have to stay close to the angle of the wind to get the most power and speed. It’s explained by Bournelli’s Principle in which air going over one surface of an object (the mast) is faster than the […]
Sailing to the Homeless
People ask, “What do the homeless have to do with sailing?” Williamsburg never developed a shelter for the homeless because officials feared it would become a magnet for homeless from Newport News. “Many communities take a similar approach,” Thomas Fortuna explained while sailing the York River. “But that ignores the fact they’re still out there, […]
Sailing into Port
People ask, “What’s it like to see the bridge open?” The opening of the Coleman Bridge is a nuisance for drivers, but from out on the water it looks fabulous. Lois Anne and J.Q. Anders of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, joined Mary and Rob Yeager of Scottdale, Pennsylvania, on an afternoon sightseeing cruise in which a […]
Sailing by Feel
Sometimes I get asked, “Can blind people sail?” Wayne Kislinburg is a retired Navy lieutenant commander whose final sail before retirement was to bring a submarine tender under the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco Bay. He later developed macular degeneration and is now legally blind, but you’d never know it. At the encouragement of […]
Alabama Sailors
The Baeder family of Auburn, Alabama, took time out from Busch Gardens to sail the unusually high seas of the York River. Because they boat on southern lakes, they enjoyed riding the bow in stiff winds that rocked the sailboat with a mild roller coaster effect. Francesca is an assistant professor at Auburn University, and […]
Sailing Class
Sam Melville, Jon Sargent and Robert Dexter Lilley concluded an intensive two-day course with SailTime Virginia Beach by running a Catalina Capri 22 out of Willoughby Bay at Norfolk beside Interstate 64, over the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel toward Thimble Shoal Lighthouse, and back to port at Willoughby Marina. The crew fought a wicked ebb […]
Sailing with Critics
People ask, “Do you have any professional video?” Michelle Alexandria was in Williamsburg shooting video with her crew Tom Allen and Kyle Ervin for eclipsemaganize.com and blogcritics.org. She views around 200 movies a year as a member of the Washington DC Film Critics Association. Once a year she gets the full treatment of promotional materials […]
Sailing off the Beaten Path
The Zahns and McMandons live in Palm Coast, Florida, an hour south of Jacksonville and an hour north of Orlando. Part of Palm Coast’s charm is that it’s relatively remote, off the beaten path and away from a metropolitan center. But you have to want to get there to go there. Similar places are Charleston, […]
Where Do You Sail?
People often ask, “Where do you sail?” The question is answered magnificently in this photo by pilot Chris Herion of Queens Lake. His aerial shot captures the breadth of the lower York River as it extends out Sara Creek and across to Yorktown, below the Coleman Bridge (on the right, out of view). The boats […]
Houston Problem
The Howell family enjoyed a beautiful afternoon sailing on the York River, near Williamsburg. After all these years, the three sisters retain varying degrees of their native Georgia accent. That led to a generalization that people outside the South find the drawl charming in women but not so much among men. It could be that […]
Sailing Upright
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrW7avH8PjA People ask, “Is extreme sailing dangerous?” This YouTube video shows how perilous it can be to sail a performance catamaran, such as found in the 2014 America’s Cup. By 2021 they were attaching the air foils to sloops for racing. The Vendee World was nearly all foiled sloops. Better that you stay with a […]
Sailing Surprise Birthday
Larry Alan Smith (far left) of Avon, Connecticut surprised his wife Margarita (at the wheel) with a birthday sail in 2014 off Yorktown. Among the family attending were their son Chris (William & Mary ’07), a former executive with JP Morgan Chase who’s starting a micro-brewery in Williamsburg; and their son Will, (W&M ’14) who’s […]
Will You Marry Me?
Sean Kosmann brought Jessica Pettrey to Williamsburg and took her sailing on a bright fall afternoon, where he proposed to her in an elegant romantic setting. He escorted her up on the bow of the boat and got down on bended knee (made difficult by recent knee surgery) to offer a fabulous diamond engagement ring. […]
Adrenalin Rush Sailing
People ask, “Is sailing inspirational?” Sailing can be downright inspirational. Donna Schmoyer’s son is a Pennsylvania state trooper who happened on a stalled van one frigid snowy night, stranded on the shoulder of Interstate 81. While assisting, he noticed a Mustang sliding directly their way on the ice and shouted for everyone to run. As […]
Tale of Two Couples
Two couples sailing the York River enjoyed opposite timelines. Jan and Bill Spendley have been married 52 years and do nearly everything together. Tyrell Gardner and his date Shawna are engaged to marry . Tye is finishing up his master’s on the way to medical school. That left us in awe for his dedication. We […]