Pets Go Sailing
Two cousins who’ve known each other for decades took a therapeutic sail on the York River with a family holding two dogs. Ellie McCulloch arranged the cruise with Debbie Anderson, whose husband died a month ago. Debbie lives far up the York River, near West Point. She asked for a life preserver and held […]
Big Ship
A US Navy Support cargo ship pulled into Yorktown Naval Weapons Station and left just a few days later. USNS Medgar Evers is 689 feet long and has a crew of 123 civilians and 36 Navy personnel, some of whom deal with two helicopters on board. The cargo hold can take 783,000 cubic feet. It […]
Ships Under the York
Underwater archeology is an important field that is poorly funded, according to John D. Broadwater, a world-renowned practioner who’s now pursuing his 11th ship under the York River. Broadwater once explored the Titanic and helped raise booster rockets from the Apollo space flights. His career has spanned 50 years, with much of it right here […]
Ultimate Towing Job
Reprinted from a Facebook post by my friend Mary Kay Dineen, who told me: “Should you need their service, these are my Minnesota relatives. I kid you not.” Written By: Mary Divine / St. Paul Pioneer Press and Linda Vanderwerf / West Central Tribune | ST. PAUL — Jason Butler, owner of City Line Towing of Willmar, […]
Sailing into History
A young man from Prescott AZ (originally Baltimore) brought his wife to Williamsburg for an annual trip they’ve done for years. They wanted the History Cruise, so I dived deeply in the 1781 Battle of the Capes and the Siege of Yorktown that effectively ended the Revolutionary War. They had some history of their own. […]
November Sail
A couple from Venezuela celebrated her 50th birthday by taking their children sailing on a brisk November day. Vanessa Martinez and Tony Torrealba moved here 20 years ago and live in Northern Virginia. Vanessa wanted to learn how to sail, and she did great on all three reaches. They got delayed crossing the Coleman Bridge […]
Let’s Stop This Sailing Feud
Let’s stop this feud between sailboats and motorboats, since both are wonderful.
Sailing on Megatankers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEhCvR43nh8 Here is the ultimate boat rental: Hundreds of millions of tons of cargo shipped by a mega-tanker under sail. Massive sails. It’s part of a long-term effort to improve “rigid wing wind” transportation by ship. An earlier blog showed that in terms of fuel consumed per ton-mile, a tugboat moving a barge is 2.5 […]
Magic of Sailing
People ask, “Is it hard to learn how to sail?” Here is a short video that conveys how easy it is to sail. Even a teenager can do it well the first time. This became the Tussing Family’s Magic of Sailing. While visiting Williamsburg on vacation, the Tussings went sailing on the York River on […]
What’s the Deal with Dolphin Sightings?
While Let’s Go Sail doesn’t promote it, we get asked all the time, “What’s the deal with dolphin sightings?” People looking for boat rentals and sailing charters get an added adventure on the York River. The Couvion family of suburban St. Louis crossed at least two rivers to go sailing on the York. First the […]
Fast Pitch Sails Past
147 teams from 16 states showed up in York County for a girls’ fast-pitch softball tournament.
Sail a Tall Ship
People ask, “Do you get much repeat business?” Jim and Jo Ann Giesen of Ford’s Colony made a return voyage from last year, bringing with them their son Mike and new bride Jess. Mike had no problem on deck casting off. “I sailed on the US Brig Niagara,” he said. “It’s a warship made to […]
Lessons Learned for Advanced Sailors
Over the course of decades, Let’s Go Sail has owned six sailboats to navigate the waters of the James River, York River, Mobjack Bay and Chesapeake Bay. Many wonderful days have been aggravated by a relatively few days of minor problems. For those buying a sailboat or otherwise getting into the sport seriously, one humbly […]
Red Skies Myth Debunked
“Red skies at night, sailors delight. Red skies in morning, sailors take warning.” This durable ditty has survived the ages because it is pithy — but often wrong. Think about it for a moment. Just because the sky is red in the evening doesn’t necessarily mean it will be a clear day tomorrow. It could […]
19 Ways to Sail Faster
For outdoor adventure while traveling to Williamsburg or Yorktown, nothing beats sailing on the York River. Here’s some advice on 19 ways to sail faster. Read a primer such as “Sailing for Dummies” to get the idea. The illustrations show various angles of the wind on the boat. That’s the big deal. You’re positioning the […]
Santa Maria at Yorktown
People ask, “Do you ever see tall ships?” A replica ship of Christopher Columbus’s fleet pulled into Yorktown for Memorial Day Weekend. The Nao Santa Maria set sail in 2017 to mark the 525th anniversary of the original discovery of America in 1492. The 200-ton, three-masted ship blew in this week from Wilmington NC. Skip […]
Dolphins!
People ask, “Do you ever see dolphins while sailing?” For the first time this year, we saw dolphins in May in the York River. Two couples from New Jersey and Tennessee got up close as the dolphins zoomed in the wake of the sailboat while cruising the York River. Art Ford spotted two of them […]
How to Build a House
Peoplel ask, “What’s it like to build a house on the water?” Heather Masters booked a sail with her husband Ryan for their 20th anniversary. By their youth, I figured they got married at 15. We had a serene run up the York River to see the Navy submarine in port, and Ryan noticed a […]
Sailing from Childhood
People ask, “Do sailors recall their childhood on the water?” Yes, fondly for the most part. A Wisconsin couple transplanted to Palm Harbor FL was visiting Williamsburg and saw they could go sailing on the York River. Peggy Wearing grew up near Lake Michigan. “I started out sailing prams and later 210s out of the […]
How to Evaluate Sailing Pricing
Every now and then I’m asked about the sailing pricing of Let’s Go Sail. It’s a fair question and is best addressed on two fronts, strategy and comparisons. Sailing Strategy The idea when starting out seven years ago was of course to earn revenue, but with a twist. The principal objective remains to get people […]