Claire Fortier took her partner Maria Pialeat and one of their grown children and his girlfriend sailing on a brisk afternoon along the York River. Claire was an editor colleague of mine at The Virginia Gazette who wound up in California editing the South Lake Tahoe Tribune, where she also was elected to City Council and became mayor.
Now the couple has moved back East, to Richmond, where Maria runs the corporate clinic for Capital One. She has 10,000 employees as patients, plus all of their families.
Claire and I regaled everyone about the prominent stories we covered during the 1980s. They included capital murders, murder trials and prison executions. The infamous Parkway Murders were never solved and were believed to be a string of crimes that included two killings in New Kent. By chance, Claire came upon the scene of the Parkway Murders. While driving down the Colonial Parkway one morning she saw the two women’s car in a ditch as the police were beginning to investigate. The story became the basis for a bestseller novel by Patricia Cornwell.
On a lighter note, we covered the Bicentennial of the Battle of Yorktown, in 1981. Five days of nonstop pomp, pageantry and history were capped by speeches from President Francois Mitterrand and President Ronald Reagan. They reminded everyone that the French have been our longest allies since they were also our first allies. I recounted for the family the Battle of the Capes and Siege of Yorktown, from the perspective of the water.
Sail with Old Friends
The season is now open for sailing on warm sunny days. To see the rates and reserve a date for a sailboat charter, click here. To check out reviews from sailors, click here. To become a crew member on a charter sail or to tell us your sailing story, click here.
