Sailing on Rising Winds
Question: How do you sail on rising winds? Answer: Keep spilling wind from the sails. Wanda and Bryant Brumfield live in rural Clinton, Louisiana, north of New Orleans. “He’s been boating all his life, but he has always wanted to try sailing,” she explained on the dock. He succeeded quite well. As winds on the York […]
Sailing to the Future
It’s an enduring cliché that young people have it tough coming out of school and finding a job. So it was a pleasant surprise to meet Paige Neidig, whom her parents Connie and Mark Neidig took sailing near Williamsburg along with her sister Samantha and fiancé Seth Weaver. They were on vacation from Wellsville, Pennsylvania. […]
Sailing with Kiwanis
We went sailing with Kiwanis as members and spouses of the Williamsburg Kiwanis Club set sail on the York River on a trip donated by Williamsburg Charter Sails to the Kiwanis Foundation. Its president, Gary Ripple, reported that the fund has grown to $405,000 and yields $20,000 annually for key club projects. Gary is a big […]
Sailing to a Reunion
Members of the Class of 1965 at a public high school in Hershey, Pennsylvania had such a good time at their 50th reunion that they extended it to Williamsburg the following year. Among them was my former colleague Ed Offley. We started out together at The Virginia Gazette, and he went on to a distinguished […]
Learning to Sail
The Monroe family from LaSalle, Illinois, took the afternoon off from touring historical sights to go sailing near Williamsburg. Ed is a dentist and Nanci is his office manager. “We were looking for something fun and different to do,” Nanci said. “This was a surprise to us.” Ed wanted to learn how to sail and […]
Sailing with a Navy Carrier
While sailing the York River with his family, a retired Navy officer told me two stories about sailing with a Navy carrier. He stipulated they were not for attribution., “We were in the North Atlantic on the Navy carrier USS America in 1972. Along comes a 13-meter sailboat whose skipper had no idea how to […]
Sailing to the Ghost Fleet
The term Ghost Fleet applies to three genres, maybe more. The first Ghost Fleet is well known to those living in Tidewater Virginia as the Ghost Fleet of US Navy and Merchant Marine ships anchored in the James River off Ft. Eustis. After World War II and for years afterward, the fleet once had more […]
Sailing to Afghanistan
Jennifer and Curtis Miller took their family on a “glam camping” trip to the York River, and we wound up sailing to Afghanistan. They are active duty Air Force, so they drove from nearby Langley AFB to Cheatham Annex, east of Williamsburg. There the Navy has decked out the old commandant’s compound into weekend getaways. […]
Sailing to Find Saddam
Three couples with diverse backgrounds enjoyed a smooth day of sailing on the York River. And they drove a considerable way to do it. Gerald Napper brought his gal Renita Marshall from Ft. Lee, south of Richmond. He’s a First Sergeant with 24 years in, and she’s a dental administrator. He drove more than a […]
Sailing in Alaska
Dave Mrowiec never surrendered the helm when he took his wife and another couple sailing along the York River in strong winds. I’ve never seen anyone happier behind the wheel. “My father sent to me Alaska when I was 19 to work on a fishing trawler. It was 52 feet and we’d fish for salmon. […]
Sailing with Zeus
On an otherwise calm day with fluctuating winds, two couples from the Midwest got to watch as the USNS Zeus came into the York River on the way to its home port at Cheatham Annex. They saw the Coleman Bridge swing both spans open to let the big ship transit. The Zeus looked beaten up […]
Celebrity Sailing
An experienced actor was among two couples from North Carolina who went sailing near Williamsburg on a blustery afternoon. Annette and Paul White travel together at least once a year with Lynda and Mike White. While enduring stiff winds that heeled the boat, Lynda mentioned that Mike White took up acting as an adult and […]
First Communion Sail
People ask, “Do you sail on special occasions?” His grandparents brought Gianni LaLota and his older brother Sal from the Fredicksburg area to go sailing after he made his First Communion that morning with his Catholic school class. The boys took the wheel with their grandfather Jim Moore in control. They managed fluky winds and […]
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 […]
Navy Ship Transits
When she arrived from New Hampshire on vacation to take her mother and daughter sailing on the York River, the last thing Evelyn Hooper expected to see on a breezy afternoon was a US Navy warship. Up came the USS Nitze, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer. All three ladies got to watch as the Coleman Bridge […]
Sailing with Rockefeller
Joy and James Mathias came from Arkansas with their friends from Missouri to take their first sailboat cruise, on the York River near Williamsburg. They were vitally interested in Colonial Williamsburg, which was restored and developed in the 1930s by John D. Rockefeller Jr. Sailing the inland waters on a beautiful afternoon was like sailing […]
Sailing Psychology
First-time sailors encounter different reactions based on their life experience, and it takes a little sailing psychology to figure it out. Golfers are better at the helm than tennis players. Men prefer the helm over women because they tend to be more adventurous and risk-prone. Dancers are better than singers. And so on with other […]
Soaring to Sail
While out cruising the York River, people on my boat are intrigued by the three-masted schooner Alliance, which is another way visitors go soaring to sail. “Is that your competition?” they ask. In fact, I have 76 competitors because that’s the number of things to do in Williamsburg according to Trip Advisor. (I’m No. 30 overall and […]
Family Sailboat Trip in Virginia
When visitors to Williamsburg are looking for a family sailboat trip in Virginia, my charter often pops up on the Internet. Aside from the fun of sailing, I take photos under way and back at dockside to document the adventure. Sometimes these are the only photos of the entire family taken on vacation, so it […]
The Dream of Owning a Sailboat
Virtually everyone I take cruising along the York River on their charter outing is fascinated by the sport of sailing. Some express the dream of owning a sailboat one day. A few have done it, with no regrets. Yet sailing isn’t all that expensive when compared to other sports. Columnist Nick Hayes in the February […]