Activity continues to pick up at the Yorktown Naval Weapons Station. We got to see the USS Stout sail in from Norfolk with a crew of VIPs on the forward deck. As often happens, the ship brought in a pod of dolphins, and they came our way once the ship transited the Coleman Bridge. Top that for excitement.
Safety Sailors
Among three couples sailing on a brisk afternoon were Brittany and Cameron Taylor of Williamsburg. He’s the chief safety officer for a heavy equipment construction company, and he’s seen it all.
“The biggest construction accident in American happened in 1999 in Milwaukee where the baseball stadium was getting a dome,” Cameron said, “when a giant crane known as Big Blue fell to the ground. On the way down, it hit a suspended personnel platform and killed three people.
“The boom operator has last call on safety. He said to stop the work because the crane was rated at 20 mph and the winds were gusting up to 27 mph. So, the owner of the crane fired the guy on the spot and took over. Then the crash happened. The force of the wind and leverage sheered the kingpin of the crane. It was a disaster. There’s even a video of it going down, shot by an amateur on the scene. The settlement to the families was $99 million, a record for Wisconsin.”
On a lighter note, we saw dolphins for a few minutes. That cheered everyone up.
Off in the distance, we observed a new and precarious dock jutting out from a large house next to the US Coast Guard Training Center. I doubt it will survive Hurricane season because it’s too tall for a coastal dock. It should have been built with stairs going all the way down the entire hill and then straight out and level with the York River. I refer to it as the Bridge over the River Kwai.
Sailors Towed
Curtis Shreve of Yorktown took his son sailing, and we got to see a boat under tow by Tow Boat US. “Did you know they can right a capsized boat?” he asked rhetorically. “They install big balloon under the boat and quickly pump in air to turn it over.
“A friend of mine who does towing told me that. He also told me that a significant number of calls they get on the water are because the engine choke isn’t closed down. They killed the engine at some point and forgot to push the choke down. It’s equivalent to calling the computer guy to come out to the house and discover that your computer isn’t plugged in.”
That’s a good lesson, well told.
Italian Sailor
A newly arrived couple to Williamsburg took his parents from Italy sailing. Riccardo Rinaldi is the new chef at the Williamsburg Winery. He told me they do around 150 for dinner and 100 for lunch.
Brisk winds led to brisk speed and moderate seas. After a few hours, his father Allesandro asked if he could try the wheel. Someone asked how long he had been sailing and he deadpanned, “Five minutes.” That brought down the house with laughter.
Rescue Sails
It’s fun to watch the US Coast Guard trainees out in their fast boats. I like to tell people that they train on the water for three things:
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Towing, in which they throw a line from one boat to the other. This is easy, since we’ve all been doing it since our dad’s threw us a line as a kid.
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Man Overboard, in which they toss a gumby suit into the water and retrieve it. In sailing, we use the Figure 8 approach to ensure stopping at the MOB without hitting him. With a motor, you can just turn around. This photo shows a rare siting of the gumby man getting hauled out. It helps visibility to wear bright orange, but no one does unless they’re wearing a USCG PFD.
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Lunch, in which the crew decides which of several restaurants along the York to dine. The boats number six or more sometimes and clog up the marina to look like a crime scene.
Sailing Lingo
People often ask why sailing lingo is so arcane. The answers vary, but the core is that the terms and descriptions have evolved over the centuries.
The Catbird Seat is on the back of the boat, for excellent viewing. The Crow’s Nest is on the top of the boat, for distance viewing. Many sailboats have the former, while none but replica tall ships have the latter.
Consider “50 Nautical Terms & Phrases that Have Enriched Our Language.”
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Port and Starboard define left and right. If I stand on the deck facing you and holler “Turn left to avoid a hazard!” the obvious question arises: my left or yours? But regardless of what direction I’m facing, the boat has only one Port and one Starboard. It can save precious seconds in an emergency to know the difference.
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.
Dying to Sail
Two cousins took their husbands sailing on a cloudy, breezy afternoon. Heather Loveland did it as a surprise for her husband Mike so he could take a sailing lesson. He’s retired from the US Navy.
“My daddy taught me to sail on a 9-foot skiff on this very river, the York,” Mike said while navigating adroitly. Had he ever been in a storm at sea? “Yes, on the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, caught in a typhoon. You don’t expect a carrier to sway up and down and sideways back and forth, but it did that for hours. An aircraft carrier, mind you!”
Heather and her cousin Joy Shelton are both in medicine. Heather is an RN and has vivid memories. “As a nursing student, I was in the OR once when the surgeon was hung over. He actually forgot what to do and sent a nurse to his locker for his textbook. He was so dehydrated that we to hook him up to an IV. And because the operation took so long, we had to hook up a catheter so he could pee. ‘You do know that I’m just a student?'” she asked the team.
Joy is from Richlands County in southwest Virginia, where seven other state capitals are closer than ours in Richmond. She’s going for her master’s in chaplaincy and has worked recently as a hospice nurse.
“The Hospice House was disbanded when our hospital got sold,” she said, “so it’s all home-based. Ours has around 50 patients, and I have to drive an hour or more to see them every few days.
“Actually, home-based is better than institutional hospice because it’s more comfortable for the patient. Their family is nearby and don’t have to travel as far.” How long do they hang on? “I’ve got one that’s been hanging on for more than two years. She has dementia, so she doesn’t know she’s dying. Some people think she’s still going because she has dementia and doesn’t know she’s dying.”
Both women said people usually know when they’re about to go. “They’ll stay on to wait for the family to gather together. But then, when a family member or two leaves the room briefly, they will just will themselves to die to spare them the agony of watching it. They just want to die in peace.”
They insisted that a DNR is a good thing because it stipulates one’s last wishes without burdening the family. “You don’t want to live as a vegetable,” Heather said. “I don’t know, maybe as a tomato,” I joked. Wait, that’s a fruit. “Look,” Heather clarified, “Even with a DNR, we’re going to do everything we can to save you — until you code. Then that’s it. We are not going to exploit the DNR to take you prematurely.”
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 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.
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