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 […]

Excessive Sail

Excessive Sail

Yorktown is abuzz about a giant cruise ship coming into port next year, ahead of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Typical headline: Princess Cruises shares update on Yorktown Voyage, but not everyone is on board The company announced in February that it would add Yorktown to the list of ports, largely because […]

Busy Sail

Busy Sail

A quiet July morning led us to motoring under the Coleman Bridge to see two Navy warships in port at the Yorktown Naval Weapons Station. I pointed out the tubes between two square tents where the Tomahawk missiles fire. Their range is 2,000 miles, sufficient to bomb Iraq and Afghanistan from the Mediterranean Sea during […]

Sail Air Force

Sail Air Force

A local couple took their family sailing on a beautiful Sunday morning. Enrique Lara is retiring from the Air Force after 23 years in a unique career.    “I run vehicle logistics for the Air Force,” he said casually and added, “all over the world.” Not planes, mind you, but vehicles. I asked how many. […]

Texans Sailing

Texans Sailing

The Coffman family from Texas went on two unique excursions in one day. First, six of them toured the Norfolk Naval Yard by way of the Miss Hampton, a day boat that runs up and down the Elizabeth River. Meanwhile, their parents toured the York River with Let’s Go Sail. Because the day was quiet […]

Navy Sailing

Navy Sailing

oh On a warm, breezy morning a newlywed couple from Louisville KY took their honeymoon cruise on the York River. Stephen Bacher explained that Rachel Kinser was planning to sail down the Mississippi River in a year or so. “I’d like to be married with her long enough before she dies,” he joked. Rachel is […]

Baby Sail

Baby Sail

A couple recently relocated to Charlottesville took two sailing sessions on the York River. They got to see the USS Monterey at Yorktown, where it’s doing maneuvers for a month. Kyle and Madison Robinson were pretty ambitious, since she’s eight months pregnant. “I’m due in a month and I’m ready,” she said midway through a […]

Sailing by VIMS

Sailing by VIMS

To avoid a rainout, Bentley Streat of nearby Hayes went a day early to take her family sailing on the York. Her sister Linda Shaffron works at nearby VIMS, or Virginia Institute of Marine Science. “Ours is the largest facility in America focused on estuarine research,” said said proudly. Estuarine as in estuary, as Chesapeake […]

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 […]