Make-A-Wish Sailing
A Texas family sponsored in Williamsburg by the Make-A-Wish Foundation wound up their vacation with an outdoor adventure by going sailing on the York River. Earlier we got rained out but rescheduled the next day under cloudy and cool conditions. It was actually quite pleasant. Because Let’s Go Sail is ADA compliant, I moved the […]
Heave-To Simplified
Let’s say you’re out sailing the York River and want to stop and have lunch. That way the boat will flatten out and food won’t wind up flying everywhere. The procedure is called Heave-To, which slows the boat to a stop. Then you’re Hove-To. I prefer the latter term because Heave-To implies vomiting. Assuming you’re […]
Honeymoon Sailing
To wind up their honeymoon week in Williamsburg, Jennifer Griffith and Bob Moran went sailing on a serene York River. A morning rain blew past and we motored out to a glassy sea that barely rippled from light winds. An incoming tide slowly drifted us upriver toward the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. Jennifer is […]
Sailing Past Cuba Gooding Jr.
Gregory Schon of Newport News took his wife Carol sailing on the York for their 15th anniversary. With sails reefed in warm 15-18 mph winds from the southwest, he celebrated appropriately by reaching 15.7 mph. Carol is a retired lab technician who moved up the hospital and corporate ladder to get into sales, traveling the […]
How Do They Get on the Sailboat?
This ridiculous picture is from Willoughby Harbor Marina in Norfolk. The place has seen better days, having been battered by a few hurricanes and numerous nor’easters over the years. The photo lends new meaning to the term boat slip. I teach at Willoughby for the American Sailing Association, and their two boats are docked at […]
American Revolution in Art
Next time you visit the U.S. Capitol Building, stand in the massive Rotunda and you will be surrounded by eight historical paintings. Revolutionary War veteran John Trumbull painted four of them, including the British surrender at Yorktown, (which figures big on the History Cruise of Let’s Go Sail.) In “Of Arms and Artists: The American Revolution through […]
Big Winds, Big Noise by Navy
Big winds for days suddenly calmed by the time Debbie Kremer of Arizona brought her beau Bob Wickley of San Antonio to sail the York River. We quietly tacked back and forth near Yorktown and got under the Coleman Bridge before mild winds clocked northwest and picked up sharply. For someone who had never been […]
Sailing Past a Navy Freighter
Monday’s sail was canceled due to high winds, a first. Tuesday’s sail presented stiff winds but more easily managed by reefing the main and keeping the Genoa furled. Longtime civic activist Margaret Fowler brought two friends from Southern California who were visiting Williamsburg so they could experience the excitement of the York River. They had […]
Returning Sailors Conquer the York
Two couples returned from last year for exciting spring sailing on the York River. Carol Logue and John Campbell were looking for big winds and they got it. Winds blowing to 20+ required reefing the main and the jib. Carol reminded me that John is a retired music teacher who plays the timpani for the […]
Sailing the York, Recalling the Navy
John Wilson of Virginia Beach took a break studying for his Virginia bar exam by taking four of his five children sailing on the York River. They arrived at a sunny and very breezy marina, and everyone donned life preservers. During the sail, the kids alternated going up on the bow with their dad, one […]
