Bachelorette Birthday Sail
On this day, the winds died down and clouds filled the air. Rain threatened off in the southeast. People ask, “Do you do birthday sails?” Mallory Beard took her friends and teammates from Hampton University out for her 20th birthday. Their volleyball team travels the country and plays 30 games over the course of the […]
What’s that Ship?
Drivers along the Colonial Parkway and the York River can’t help but notice an unusual ship docked for months at the US Navy base Cheatham Annex. From afar, the blue hull and white deck resemble a cruise ship, but up close one can see multiple radars and other intel equipment on deck. This is the […]
Sailing Past History
I get asked, “Why did the colonists rebel in the 1770s?” While conveying the Battle of the Capes and the Siege of Yorktown to a group of six along the York River, Susan Jennaro got to talking about what a good job the interpreters do at Colonial Williamsburg. One thing they don’t have time to […]
Sailboat Wedding
Linda Dugan and Dennis Landry came all the way from arid Arizona to Virginia to get married on the water in a uniquely romantic setting. They chose Williamsburg Charter Sails to go out on the York River for their wedding ceremony. As we sailed to the middle of the river, almost miraculously several pods comprising […]
Learning in Rising Winds
In facHaving been a motorboat dude all his life, Steven Cucick of Littleton MA brought his wife Christine to Yorktown to learn how to sail on the York River. We covered all three points of sail: close reach, beam reach, broad reach. We did a heave-to for Man Overboard. He sailed in light and fluky […]
Sailing to Sierra Leone
The private sailboat experience attracts a lot of people who do well by doing good. Meet Karen and Tom Asher, surgeons who do missionary work in Sierra Leone six months of every year. They are avid sailors who enjoyed a relaxing cruise near Williamsburg while on vacation. I asked Karen, “Did you get Ebola?” “No, […]
Sailing Past the Navy
The US Navy has strict rules that no one can sail closer than 200 yards to the Yorktown Naval Weapons Station when a ship is in port. Nash Skiles took his family out sailing in a light wind that carried us under the Coleman Bridge and well safe of that range. We watched as […]
Will I Get Seasick?
People occasionally ask, “Will I get seasick?” on a three-hour cruise along the York River. The answer is No, for several reasons. 1. We sail in a river, which almost never gets enough chop to make the boat pitch forward and backward. High seas with seven-foot waves (measured from top to bottom) are found 20 miles […]
Sailing Memories
Elizabeth Blatz and her friend Heidi Smith went sailing while visiting Williamsburg, and it brought back fond memories. “My parents had a 70-foot sailboat, built in Japan,” Elizabeth said. “The man who built it sailed it to the U.S. after the war and sold it. It presented as a magnificent boat and we kept it […]
Sailing from Germany
Germans are funny people, but not in the humorous sense. While sailing along the York River with her husband’s family, Rebecca Westrum regaled us with stories of teaching English in Germany. I wondered how they could possibly grasp so many American idioms, or figures of speech unique to our culture. Someone suggested the idiom of […]
Sailing the Constitution
Three experienced sailing couples went out on the York River and got to run three tacks of an asymmetrical spinnaker off the bow. As we neared the mouth of the river, I recounted the blockade that the French fleet executed of the Chesapeake Bay and the York in September 1781. Lord Earl Cornwallis looked out […]
Sailing to Success
Two couples from New York City quit their jobs in fashion, corporate, nursing and teaching to find success in a group home setting in Washington, DC. Charrisse and Mark Ifill and his brother Mike Ifill and his wife Khardieita related their collective experience while sailing on the York River near Williamsburg with their small children. […]
Sailing Past College
Among six people sailing the York River near Williamsburg, two had close connections to Virginia’s community college system. We sailed past college like never before. Susan Wood of Glen Allen retired as the top academic officer for the entire system of 23 colleges spanning 41 campuses. Part of her job was to approve […]
Folds of Honor Sail
Hundreds of people turned out to the inaugural 2015 Patriot Boating Days at York River Yacht Haven. Proceeds from games, events and activities benefited Folds of Honor, which supports the families of America’s fallen or disabled heroes by educating their legacy with scholarships. Leslie Morton and Sarah Clarkson took their children sailing along the York […]
Warship Sails Past
The Coleman Bridge swung both spans open for the warship USS John S. McCain as it sailed past Yorktown on the York River. Jonathan and Zack Barringer joined the rest of their family observing the exercise as the ship proceeded from the Norfolk Naval Base to the Yorktown Naval Weapons Station. Their dad Jeffrey noted […]
New Sailors
While sailing in a wonderful breeze, I explained to the Bartlett family of Minnesota how the Coleman Bridge met deadline when it was replaced over the York River between Yorktown and Gloucester Point. For a detailed look at the history of the bridge, check out the video below. Mike Bartlett served in the “Brown Navy” […]
Lights for Sailboats
The US Coast Guard has developed an elaborate scheme of navigation lights for boats and sailboats of all sizes on the York River and around the world. Thay way, everyone can recognize each other at night and tell what direction they’re going. The easiest example is the one here of a sailboat with red, green […]
Sailing War Stories
People ask while sailing the York River how Gen. George Washington could communicate with Admiral Francoise DeGrasse in the Caribbean to get the French fleet here. Much it transpired by letters sent by couriers on single-mast sloops that could go faster than conventional warships. Frigates with two masts comprised sloops. The most famous early sloop […]
Building a Sailboat
People ask, “Is it hard to build a sailboat?” They find it surprising to learn how to do it, at least in the factory. It takes fabrication, in three parts. The fiberglass hull is laid up with a mold, and the interior gets built separately. They add parts inside and out until the decking drops […]
Mariner Spectrum
Two ends of the mariner spectrum were captured in a sea change along the York River. A waterman sets up for the day to harvest oysters off the river bed while the destroyer USS Mitscher transits toward the Coleman Bridge and Yorktown Naval Weapons Station. The Mitscher was the Navy’s official welcoming ship when […]