Old Friends Sailing
Claire Fortier took her partner Maria Pialeat and one of their grown children and his girlfriend sailing on a brisk afternoon along the York River. Claire was an editor colleague of mine at The Virginia Gazette who wound up in California editing the South Lake Tahoe Tribune, where she also was elected to […]
Sailing into Surgery
“Did you know that a DNR doesn’t apply if you go into surgery?” That provocative notion was told by Joel Dixon, who with his wife Hamet works as an Operating Room nurse at the University of Virginia Hospital in Charlottesville. They were in Williamsburg for an afternoon sail on the York River with their daughter […]
Sailing Days of Old
Gina Womack took her parents, Stephanie and Tom Womack, sailing on the York River on blustery afternoon. We motored across the water to the Yorktown side to get into the lee of the wind, where the trees and the cliffs knock down the gusts. There we cruised up and down the coast while enjoying a […]
Sailing past a Submarine
Submarines that are partially surfaced are hard to see, especially when they’re in dock. Sailing past a submarine can therefore be tricky. Arelene and Marvin Birnbaum enjoy the great outdoors by camping. They live in the Hudson Valley of New York and thought they’d take a crack at sailing, since they live near the river […]
Sailing a New Boat
Don Schreffler just bought an old sailboat with another fellow and then went sailing on a new boat to get the feel. (New to him.) “We were going to pay $2,500 but the owner couldn’t start the engine. He was really frustrated about it and gave us the boat for $1,000. My buddy is a […]
Washington’s Spies
The Siege of Yorktown had everything: Cannon fire, sea battles, death, destruction, sickness, victory— and spies. So it’s odd when people ask, “Was Yorktown important?” In the summer of 1778, George Washington authorized the formation of a secret chain of agents known as the Culper Ring to operate in British-occupied New York. The following excerpt from […]
The Dream of Owning a Sailboat
Virtually everyone I take cruising along the York River on their charter outing is fascinated by the sport of sailing. Some express the dream of owning a sailboat one day. A few have done it, with no regrets. Yet sailing isn’t all that expensive when compared to other sports. Columnist Nick Hayes in the February […]
Sail Class Crescendo
The 16th fall sail class by the Williamsburg Area Learning Tree reached a crescendo Nov. 8 with a straight run out the York River to the edge of the Chesapeake Bay, just south of Mobjack Bay and within sight of Newpoint Comfort. On the return leg, we used a northeast wind of 10-15 mph and […]
Sail to Weather
We found out what it’s like to sail to weather. For the 16th year, the fall class of the Williamsburg Area Learning Tree assembled for the three-day “Adventures in Sailing” class. Among the returning alumni is David “Ned” Neidlinger whose career in the Air Force included intensive weather work and data collection. High up in the […]
Diverse Sailors
Three couples spanning generations from different parts of the country formed diverse sailors on the York River this week. Corinne Casey is an optometrist and Brian Kanhofer is a computer engineer. They drove down from Baltimore and rented a cabin on the York. “It seemed so much more rustic than a hotel in Williamsburg,” Brian said.
