Farming Sail

We get very few people from Oklahoma, so Melissa and R.T. Green of Leedey were a pleasant surprise. They took their grandson Brier out as part of a vast historical journey. “We were in Washington yesterday,” Melissa said, “and we’re doing Williamsburg and Yorktown here.” The winds were light but steady, a refreshing change from […]

Multiple Sails

Multiple Sails

Home Again During multiple sails, the cable-laying USNS Zeus returned to Cheatham Annex after many months at sea in the Atlantic. The Zeus lays hundreds of miles of intel cable as deep as 9,000 feet. It’s the only ship in its class because the sister ship never got built. It looks like an old hospital […]

Great Sailing Day

People ask, “Aaarrrghhh! Are we tipping over?” Landlubbers, women and other reasonable people are put off at first by the heeling effect of a sailboat. The optimum tilt under sail in a good wind is 10-15 degrees off center. Anything beyond that is uncomfortable and surprisingly inefficient. Despite what you’ve seen on TV or in […]

Heeling is Fun

People ask, “What kind of coincidences do you encounter?” We had another family go sailing from New Hampshire, so that’s twice in two days. Mike and Linda Roberge brought their grandsons from the Granite State to Williamsburg, where they all went sailing on a warm spring afternoon. We were all in shirtsleeves, a first this […]