Sailing Past Navy Destroyer
While on a weekend getaway from Washington, DC, Dave Ramish took his girlfriend Ilana Freedman sailing for some outdoor fun off Yorktown. They hit the jackpot by observing a rare Saturday departure of a Navy warship from the Yorktown Naval Weapons Station. We set out with anticipation after a chilly, drizzly morning into clearing […]
Sailing home to Virginia
Is it possible to lose a southern accent? Carolyn and Steven Wrench retired from their respective jobs in Minneapolis this summer and immediately went traveling. She grew up in Front Royal in Northern Virginia, and they have lived in Minnesota for 35 years. She had a discernible Midwestern accent, but not too flat. Carolyn took the […]
Boarding El Galeon
Hundreds of visitors to Yorktown have been boarding the Spanish replica El Galeon Andalucia for self-guided tours. It’s called El Galeon for short and its home port is Seville. The ship spent the summer touring the Great Lakes and most recently sailed in from Long Island, where thousands of New Yorkers boarded for a look above and […]
Sailing for speed
We got the sail of a lifetime on a brisk morning breeze coming out of the northeast. Luis and Spring Aponte came from Ft. Eustis to celebrate their eighth wedding anniversary. Spring took the wheel once Luis and I set the mainsail. Before long we got up to 10 mph, and then we rolled out […]
New Yorktown musuem
This month marks the 235th anniversary of the British surrender at Yorktown, and with it came the opening of the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown. (It’s not be confused with the bigger museum opening next year in Philadelphia.) The place is laid out nicely except that the main gallery that is open is something of […]
Before Yorktown
The Battle of Yorktown didn’t just happen. Douglas Cummings gave an excellent prelude as part of the Christopher Wren Association fall 2016 series. Nearly all 250 seats at the Williamsburg Library auditorium were full. Cummings is an amateur historian who has spent 17 years volunteering at the battlefield for the National Park Service. Besides the […]
Sailing past a submarine
Two couples who’ve been married for decades celebrated their anniversaries by sailing past a submarine during their vacation to Williamsburg. Lisa Kuert surprised her husband Paul on their 35th. “I had no idea where she was taking me,” he said. “I had sandals on so I figured it couldn’t be too dangerous, like rock climbing.” […]
The Internal Enemy
Alan Taylor’s “The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832” addresses the complex subject of slavery in a state dedicated to liberty while still enslaving two-fifths of the population. In 1775 the last royal governor, Lord Earl Dunmore, freed the slaves provided they would fight for the British. While the majority of the Taylor book looks […]
Sailing with Celebrity
I made a rare run for the first time this season to Yorktown to pick up two couples. Yorktown has wicked currents and requires dock hands, which proved the case. Terri Devlin and David Haberman were on vacation from Pittsburgh, where she works for a company making sleep apnea monitors and sails a 21-foot Hunter. […]
All the Ships at Sea
Two young couples went sailing for a little adventure on their respective wedding anniversaries. They wound up encountering a lot of adventure, as they saw all the ships at sea. Craig Pancake of New Creek, West Virginia, took his wife Elissa out. Jean-Louis Lombos of Richmond took his wife Jennifer out as well, with a […]
