The state ship of Delaware blew into Yorktown for a week, and we saw it under sail. The Kalmar Nyckel is an enormous replica under the auspices of a nonprofit foundation. As we sailed by, officers shouted instructions to the crew who seemed oblivious. Perhaps the biggest thing about the ship is the American Flag.
We drifted for a while until the wind picked up. Then, Donna and Paul Gagliano watched as their grandson Owen took the helm. He just earned his Eagle Scout award, which included a merit badge for sailing. He did that on a small boat with a tiller and rather enjoyed the helm as the wind picked up.
The Gaglianos were from Tennessee and the other couple were from Texas. We got to talking about Buccee’s, a giant version of 7-Eleven. Kathy Farris said, “The founder lived near me in Jackson, Texas. His nickname growing up was Beaver.” Donna said, “I saw a patriotic T-shirt in the Buccee’s we passed in West Virginia. It read “Red, White & Blue and Home of the Beaver.” They’re building the world’s largest Buccee’s in Luling, Texas, “as if they’re not big enough with more than a hundred gas pumps,” Paul said. “They’re taking Tennessee by storm.”
Women enjoy sailing today more than ever, and particularly a romantic cruise. Couples get to enjoy a romantic getaway as they sit up on the bow for privacy, and Let’s Go Sail provides professional photos for free. First-time or skilled mariners are welcome to sail a modern-32-foot sailboat in a unique setting of wildlife and Fall foliage or Spring bloom. It makes for an extraordinary anniversary idea.
Social Work Sail
Kristen Ora lives near Ann Arbor MI and visited Williamsburg with her two sons. Cas had a challenging time with light and fluky winds, but once they picked up his brother Chase took off downriver.
Kristen has her own private practice for clinical social work and spoke proudly of it.
“I once took a girl with a series of problems that I traced back to deficient diet of mostly junk food. I put her on a 90-day died of protein and other foods and she recovered well. Her mother would call me periodically to check in, but it was mainly for the girl to talk about how well she was doing. That was very satisfying.”
Covid was terrible, in its own way. “I was well into telehealth before Covid, treating [University of Michigan] students over Zoom. So when Covid came, I was ready.
“Not everyone did well. I’ve treated children whose parents died of it. One family was summoned upstate to pay their last respects to Dad in a nursing home. They could barely see him behind the glass window. It turned out they had the wrong guy. Even worse, the real dad actually died several months later.”
In the afternoon, five more people got to see the Kalmar Nickel close up and under sail. We could hear the captain shouting orders, and we could see the crew in the crow’s nest adjusting the sails. Quite a sight to see on the water.
Sailing Big
John Polson of Gloucester Point took his fiance Anne Mercer sailing on a warm, breezy afternoon. He used to be a scheduler for Deltaville Boatyard, up the coast.
“We took in big yachts in the summer from the Caribbean whose insurance policies required that they relocate above the latitude of the North Carolina state line to avoid hurricane season,” he explained. I recall at least 100 big boats on the hards.
“That’s right. They had a hard time coming around Jackson Creek because it’s so narrow and twisty. I worked inside, but sometimes it was all hands on-deck in early June to take them in. Come November, they went back into Jackson Creek and back south. People had to pay up before we’d splash their boat, to get the boat out of jail as it were.”
They very much wanted to take a photo of Anne’s childhood home, just east of the historic Little England. “I spent my summers there swimming, boating and fishing. It was wonderful.” So was the sail, because when I sent them up to the bow for some intimacy, a pod of dolphins raced us back to Sarah Creek.
Farewell Kalmar
After a week at Yorktown and following Harbor Fest in Norfolk, the Kalma Nyckel departed for Wilmington DE. I radioed the captain, whom I’ve gotten to know the past few days.
“I have a thousand feet of line on this boat, and we have an office pool determining how many feet of line you carry.”
She replied, “Eight miles.” Dana Isaacs on board did the calculation in her head: “42,240 feet.” We laughed out loud, and she added, “I can hear you laughing in the background.” We bade each other farewell, and she added, “We’re motoring out the Bay and then will sail to Delaware. You guys are great, I’ve seen you out here sailing hard every day.”
Family Sail
Nikki Waxman of Washington DC booked a sail for her family while they were staying in a vacation house in nearby Whitestone. There was some apprehension about her father Preston navigating the boat with balance issues, but he did fine. In fact, he sailed the hell out of the boat.
“I used to own a 30-foot CS sailboat, out of Canada,” he said. While they were living in Florida, tragedy struck. His wife Betts picked up the story. “It was the last hurricane of 2004. Afterward, we went down to find it where it was moored out in the river. But everything was gone. We finally found it, up on a cliff if you can imagine that. It took a crane to remove it.”
“The insurance paid off more than the original value of the boat,” Preston marveled. “They put it on a truck and hauled it to Louisiana for auction. It went for very little cost. If I had known that I would have driven all that way and bought it back.”
Ironic Sail
The Costa family of suburban Philadelphia enjoyed a sailing adventure with 15 mph winds and bright, sunny skies. While their parents lounged on the bow, three siblings talked in earnest about the classical music playing on Spotify. Joanna is a classically trained pianist, and her mother has her master’s in music.
The topic switched when Nathaniel said, “I read recently about a young man who was so impressed by Ronald Reagan playing a Secret Service agent in an old movie that he dedicated his life to becoming one himself. He grew up and became an agent and then was the agent who jumped in front of Reagan when John Hinckley shot him.” The movie is ‘Code of the Secret Service,’ and the agent was Jerry Parr.
Among five people sailing in the afternoon, Michelle McDuffie talked about her experience diving off Saba, near St. Martens. “It’s a very small island, no bigger than an aircraft carrier. I was down 150 feet one time when I saw something shiny sticking in the sand. It was a Go Pro, so I pulled it out of the sand. Took it to the dive shop, where they got it to work. They knew the people as clients. The date was 2008, and this was last year 2013. That speaks to the integrity of a Go Pro case.”
Let’s Go Sail
Check Couples and Family rates and pick a day for a sailboat charter. Scroll down reviews on Trip Advisor. Go back to the home page of Williamsburg Charter Sails.
The best Williamsburg boat tour offers safe “social distance sailing” daily for up to 6 people. It’s an extraordinary experience for couples. Leave your worries behind. Enjoy the thrill of moving with the wind without a care in the world. Put life back on an even keel with a romantic experience for a birthday or anniversary. 3-hour sailboat cruise as a semi-private yachting charter lets you exhale and relax as you enjoy comfort, stability and speed.
Delaware Sail Delaware Sail Delaware Sail Delaware Sail
