Sailing through November

With daytime temperatures in the 60s, winds are still warm as the water temperature of the York River remains in the 70s. (Quite the opposite occurs in March when the winter has chilled the water to produce bitter cold winds.) Enjoy a fall afternoon sail from 11 to 2. Call 757 876-8654 for reservations. 

DANGEROUS ALASKA —As we sailed along the York River past the Yorktown Coast Guard Training Center, I asked Rob Faucett of Ocean View, Delaware, what it was like to serve in the US Coast Guard in the Gulf of Alaska and Bearing Sea. “I think we took as high as 27-foot seas, which was okay on a 180-foot buoy tender. But we couldn’t take the waves to the side of the boat because the hull was shaped like a football to rise up and break ice. It was pretty rolly in a storm.” With the added dimension of cold winds and water during winter, he added, “Nobody went out on deck in a situation like that.”  We sailed on peacefully in one-foot seas. 

Sailing 50 Years Later

Linda Louise Stamper of Indiana and her beau Scott dated a few times in high school before graduating in 1960 and going their separate ways to marry and raise families. Years later their spouses passed away. Scott related while sailing the York River how he caught up with Linda, who had developed a successful advertising agency. “I noticed that she designed the invitation for the 50^th high school reunion. I didn’t go, but I saw her picture and called a few months later.” Fifty years later, they got married and are now looking to attend their 55^th high school reunion together. Their homecoming should get top billing.

Navy Ensign Marie Gallant and Navy Lt. Addison Carr met at sea on the USS Antietam guided missile cruiser and just got engaged to marry. They are stationed in Norfolk on different ships. “I was enlisted at first and went to OCS,” she said as they cruised along the York River quietly. “No one in my family was ever in the military. Not a lot of people can say they’ve been out in the ocean and looked up at the stars.” She’s from San Diego and was commissioned there on the aircraft carrier Midway, now a museum. “They didn’t close the museum, so civilians were coming by in flip flops as we stood in our whites. It was awesome.” Out at sea, “I’ve been on ships chasing typhoons back to port, rolling 20 degrees to one side and then 20 degrees to the other.”