Gal Pal Sail
Gal Pal Sail describes how three women from Richmond took the helm.
Season Opener
After a shakedown cruise with a delightful couple from Fredericksburg, we launched the season opener with a fellow who brought his wife and sisters-in-law along for his third time at Let’s Go Sail. Since it was a Monday, we were on the lookout for two Moran tugs that would signal an incoming Navy warship. Sure […]
Arts Quarter Sails
Award-winning actor Glenn Close was the star of the dedication of the William & Mary Arts Quarter, a massive reconfiguration of Phi Beta Kappa Hall into a half dozen buildings interconnected. Before several hundred alumni and guests in the new PBK, Close expressed heartfelt gratitude for their support, tearing up at one point from the […]
Hover Sail
Three couples from Georgia, South Carolina and Maryland converged on a cool, crisp Fall day to pursue the History Cruise. But first we sailed under the Coleman Bridge to view a Navy submarine in port. Doug Boyd reluctantly took the helm, having once sailed S-28s in Annapolis. He talked of the wind conditions there as […]
The World
Albeit pretentious, that’s the name of a massive cruise ship that anchored overnight in the York River. MS The World presages the coming (and controversial) Princess liner with 3,000 passengers disembarking at Yorktown. But this one has only 150-200 passengers who own 165 condo apartments worth millions. As the name implies, the cruising course extends […]
Navy Sail
For six weeks, we saw nary a Navy warship. Then two showed up within two days. Three days later, the first ship left to go out to sea. A New Hampshire couple was aboard, having taken their ASA 101 course on Lake Champlain. I thought it only fitting that the navigate under the Coleman Bridge […]
Navy Sailing
oh On a warm, breezy morning a newlywed couple from Louisville KY took their honeymoon cruise on the York River. Stephen Bacher explained that Rachel Kinser was planning to sail down the Mississippi River in a year or so. “I’d like to be married with her long enough before she dies,” he joked. Rachel is […]
Baby Sail
A couple recently relocated to Charlottesville took two sailing sessions on the York River. They got to see the USS Monterey at Yorktown, where it’s doing maneuvers for a month. Kyle and Madison Robinson were pretty ambitious, since she’s eight months pregnant. “I’m due in a month and I’m ready,” she said midway through a […]
Sailing by VIMS
To avoid a rainout, Bentley Streat of nearby Hayes went a day early to take her family sailing on the York. Her sister Linda Shaffron works at nearby VIMS, or Virginia Institute of Marine Science. “Ours is the largest facility in America focused on estuarine research,” said said proudly. Estuarine as in estuary, as Chesapeake […]
Submarine Sighted
While exiting Sarah Creek with a couple from Phoenix AZ, I heard a radio call on Channel 16: “White hull sailboat in the York River, this is the United States Navy warning about an approaching submarine.” I looked around and saw two Moran tugboats rumbling upriver toward the Coleman Bridge, but no submarine. The radio […]
