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 […]
Sailing past Warship
A couple from Williamsburg took their extended family sailing along the York on a breezy summer afternoon. Hannah Gibbons’ dad Patrick was an experienced skipper who last helmed a 52-footer in Puget Sound. He had no trouble with winds of 10 mph gusting to 15. We got to see the USS John Finn exit the […]
Sailing Lake Superior
A couple from Northern Virginia just bought a summer home in nearby Kilmarnock and took their friends sailing on the York River. Pat Tracey worked all over the world with the US Navy and retired as a lieutenant commander. “But I never got to captain a ship because I was the last of the women […]
The Sullivans Transit
USS The Sullivans made a rare Saturday morning transit through the Coleman Bridge, backing up weekend traffic momentarily. The cruise missile destroyer takes its name from five brothers killed in World War II. People comment that ships like this would make it through if only their antenna stood a little lower. But this view shows […]
Sailing from Germany
Germans are funny people, but not in the humorous sense. While sailing along the York River with her husband’s family, Rebecca Westrum regaled us with stories of teaching English in Germany. I wondered how they could possibly grasp so many American idioms, or figures of speech unique to our culture. Someone suggested the idiom of […]
Sailing into Port
People ask, “What’s it like to see the bridge open?” The opening of the Coleman Bridge is a nuisance for drivers, but from out on the water it looks fabulous. Lois Anne and J.Q. Anders of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, joined Mary and Rob Yeager of Scottdale, Pennsylvania, on an afternoon sightseeing cruise in which a […]
