Sailing Under Spinnaker
Memorial Day Weekend started with light winds on a cool, sunny day. Rachel Shepherd brought her family up from Newport News and Portsmouth for a lively outing they did not expect. Indeed, they wound up sailing under spinnaker. “We should have told you we’re in AA,” Rachel teased. “Accidents Anonymous is who we are. Every […]
Sailing Under Brighter Skies
People summon up the distant past to remember the strangest things about sailing. After seven days of clouds and rain, the skies brightened and so did the customers. While navigating the York River in a rising wind as his wife and daughter looked on confidently, Matthew Reed of Higganum CT recalled sailing after a storm […]
Heave-To Simplified
Let’s say you’re out sailing the York River and want to stop and have lunch. That way the boat will flatten out and food won’t wind up flying everywhere. The procedure is called Heave-To, which slows the boat to a stop. Then you’re Hove-To. I prefer the latter term because Heave-To implies vomiting. Assuming you’re […]
Sailing Past Cuba Gooding Jr.
Gregory Schon of Newport News took his wife Carol sailing on the York for their 15th anniversary. With sails reefed in warm 15-18 mph winds from the southwest, he celebrated appropriately by reaching 15.7 mph. Carol is a retired lab technician who moved up the hospital and corporate ladder to get into sales, traveling the […]
How Do They Get on the Sailboat?
This ridiculous picture is from Willoughby Harbor Marina in Norfolk. The place has seen better days, having been battered by a few hurricanes and numerous nor’easters over the years. The photo lends new meaning to the term boat slip. I teach at Willoughby for the American Sailing Association, and their two boats are docked at […]
Sailing Teamwork
A Portsmouth couple bought a 27 Seward to dock near their house. Then they set out to learn how to sail as a team by mastering a Capri 22 through ASA SailTime Virginia Beach. So began four outings in three days of sailing teamwork. Days 1 and 2 were compounded by considerable Navy activity around […]
Big Winds, Big Noise by Navy
Big winds for days suddenly calmed by the time Debbie Kremer of Arizona brought her beau Bob Wickley of San Antonio to sail the York River. We quietly tacked back and forth near Yorktown and got under the Coleman Bridge before mild winds clocked northwest and picked up sharply. For someone who had never been […]
Sailing Past a Navy Freighter
Monday’s sail was canceled due to high winds, a first. Tuesday’s sail presented stiff winds but more easily managed by reefing the main and keeping the Genoa furled. Longtime civic activist Margaret Fowler brought two friends from Southern California who were visiting Williamsburg so they could experience the excitement of the York River. They had […]
Sailing the York, Recalling the Navy
John Wilson of Virginia Beach took a break studying for his Virginia bar exam by taking four of his five children sailing on the York River. They arrived at a sunny and very breezy marina, and everyone donned life preservers. During the sail, the kids alternated going up on the bow with their dad, one […]
Sailing Past Thanksgiving
The cruising season winds up by mid-November, but I held off until after Thanksgiving to take Adam Six of Charlotte NC and his girlfriend on a surprise sail for her. Lennie Gorman was recovering from shoulder surgery, and Adam was on leave from Afghanistan. He said, “I work in maintenance with MRVs,” which I took […]
