Schooner Windsong

Schooner Windsong

Booking is now available for our 2022 season! Head to our website to book your sightseeing cruise, sunset sail, or adventure sail!

Cruises will start in April!

https://www.schoonerwindsong.com/

Schooner Windsong Chesapeake Bay sailing charters on the traditional Schooner Windsong Book Online Now Circa 2005 with Chris Gateley at the helm. Windsong has a long history!Check out the logs kept by the former owners, Chris and Sue Gateley, as they sailed her under the beautiful name Sara B from 2004 to 2020. Click...

First coat of varnish is on!

All gaffs and booms are sanded and prepped for varnish and paint! Well, need to wire brush the metal fittings and get some ospho on there, but everything else is done!

#AllWoodAllGood #wintermaintenance #spars #booms #gaffs #schooners #schoonerwindsong

Got some good work done today! A bit chilly, but the fire kept us all toasty warm. Thanks to Xachariah and Gretchen for the help!

Windsong work day tomorrow afternoon! Anyone want to come lend a hand stripping and sanding varnish from the spars? Shoot us a message if you do!

Foggy night in Norfolk.

Schooner Windsong

As we start preparing for our 2022 season, we're getting things like our website up and running, so click the link here and check it out! Simple home page for now, but more content will be coming soon, including the ability for y'all to book cruises online!

Schooner Windsong Chesapeake Bay sailing charters on the traditional Schooner Windsong 2022 Booking Will Be Available Soon! Circa 2005 with Chris Gateley at the helm. Windsong has a long history!Check out the logs kept by the former owners, Chris and Sue Gateley, as they sailed her under the beautiful name Sara B fro...

Schooner Windsong updated their website address.

Schooner Windsong updated their website address.

Happy to announce we found a new friend for Windsong this week! We bought this little beauty from the #deltavillemaritimemuseum and can't wait to get her ship shape and take her out for a spin! ⛵ Taking name suggestions if you have a good one. 👌#allwoodallgood

Thanks to the help of a great group of friends we got the sails, gaffs, booms, most of the running rigging, and the name boards all removed for the winter!

Over the winter we'll be painting and varnishing the spars, servicing and varnishing the blocks, and replacing most of the running rigging.

Top 5 Scariest Critters in the Bay

Here's a little fun knowledge about the Bay!

#schoonerwindsong #chesapeakebay #chesapeakebayfoundation

Top 5 Scariest Critters in the Bay In honor of Halloween, we're counting down the five scariest critters in our waters.

We're headed back to Rebel with a little daysail combo up as we motor sail along.

What a great week! Time for a nap.

#schoonerwindsong #AllWoodAllGood #gcbsr #greatchesapeakebayschoonerrace

The results are in!

We took 1st place in Class C!

The other boats in our class all dropped out, but we waited out the calm and pushed hard through the blow overnight!

So on top of that we were awarded the Perseverance award for the last schooner to cross the finish line of the big boats at Thimble Shoals.

Thank you all so much for supporting and following us! Time to head to the shanty sing!

#schoonerwindsong #AllWoodAllGood #firstplace #1stplace #gcbsr #greatchesapeakebayschoonerrace

Schooner Windsong has officially finished her first Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race!

We had a rockin' and rollin' ride overnight and across our finish line, ripping along at up to 8.1 knots!

Time for a crew nightcap, minus one who's down with the seasickness, then nap time before the awards party this afternoon!

Thanks to everyone who cheered us on and followed our progress! We'll post our results after the awards party!

#schoonerwindsong #AllWoodAllGood #gcbsr #greatchesapeakebayschoonerrace #howmanyexclamationpointsistoomany

Gooooood morning!

We have passed Cove Point! It was a long night of tacking in relatively light wind while avoiding the large ship traffic and tug boats that are thick in the choke point that Cove Point creates.

We got a little pick up of wind at sunrise and will be riding that for a bit before it's forecast to lay down again. But as we make our way south we should find more wind eventually.

Time for coffee and breakfast!

#schoonerwindsong #AllWoodAllGood #gcbsr #greatchesapeakebayschoonerrace #chesapeakebay #sunrise

Our class C started at 1230 in extremely light winds. We made the starting line but not the reaching mark before the ebb tide pulled us out past it, the penalty for which is doing a 360° circle at your earliest convenience.

The afternoon and evening was extremely slow, averaging about 2 knots, but the wind is starting to pick up. We saw 4.4 knots for a bit, and are hoping the wind will increase as we head south.

We've stood into watches for the night, and will post another update in the morning!

Thank you to everyone that's been following along and rooting for us!

#schoonerwindsong #AllWoodAllGood #gcbsr #greatchesapeakebayschoonerrace

(All Boats) Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Regatta

We're headed to the starting line! You can follow us and the rest of the race fleet at this link!

#schoonerwindsong #allwoodallgood #gcbsr #greatchesapeakebayschoonerrace

(All Boats) Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Regatta

Parade of Sail today!

We arrived in Baltimore yesterday morning at 0854. 23 hours and 38 minutes underway from Norfolk, which we were very happy about! We plan for 4.5 knots when voyage planning, but motor sailing with a bit of wind gave us more like 6.5 average.

Made a turn around the Inner Harbor to show off a bit, then docked and got to work with some projects.

Our alternator wasn't putting out proper voltage during the trip. Turns out its mounting bracket had nearly fallen off, so we remounted it and put a new belt on. Operating great now!

Did some other cleaning and polishing, then enjoyed a night out in Fells Point celebrating our friend Laura's birthday!

We are underway for Baltimore!

Well, as of 0916 yesterday we were. It was a busy day out on the water so we didn't get anything posted until now.

We made great time motor sailing out of Hampton Roads, quickly seeing 8 knots, then dropping to 5-6 for a lot of the day.

The wind was out of the SW so we kept a nice broad reach until evening when it got a little funky. The wind totally dropped out around 2230, at which point we finally sheeted everything in tight.

We managed to ride the flood tide all the way from the Potomac to Baltimore! As I write this we're about to pass under the Bay Bridge with 0.8kts helping us along!

See you in a few hours Baltimore!

#schoonerwindsong #allwoodallgood #gcbsr #greatchesapeakebayschoonerrace

We're really excited to meet our friends in Baltimore for this awesome race!

Next up on #MeettheFleet for the 2021 Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race is Schooner Windsong!

WINDSONG (ex. SARA B) is a 47' Tancook Schooner homeported in Norfolk, Virginia. We believe this will be the schooner's first GCBSR.
Built in Nova Scotia in 1955 by Ray Stevens, the schooner currently offers 6-person adventure charters in the Southern Chesapeake.

We can't wait to see them on the starting line.

#AllWoodAllGood #SchoonerTime

Today's projects: building and installing running backstays, polishing bronze chocks, and re-oiling the cockpit trim. With the super-skilled help of Joseph and Alex!

Big news! We'll be sailing in the 2021 Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race!

We've been prepping the boat over the last few weeks. Building new running backstays, inspecting the rig, replacing a lot of older shackles and such, tuning the rig. Installing an AIS and mounting an EPIRB. Finishing our bronze polishing projects and installing the new lifelines. And finishing up some paint and varnish projects.

We're super excited to be a part of this race again, but this year with our own schooner!

#schoonerwindsong #allwoodallgood #gcbsr #greatchesapeakebayschoonerrace

Taking her back to our marina this morning. We were just planning on motoring but once we rounded Lambert's Point we got a good wind so we decided to set the fore and stay. Motor sailing at an easy 6.5 knots!

Sunset on the hook last weekend with guests. Wonderful trip and an even better crew! #chesapeakebaysailing #schoonerwindsong #allwoodallgood

Happy 4th of July from our Boat to yours!

Sunset over Cape Charles this weekend 🌞 What a great trip!

Cape Charles Day Sails!

This weekend we have two openings for day sails in Cape Charles on Virginia's Eastern Shore. Saturday morning and Saturday afternoon.

Bring up to 6 people for a 2-hour sail out into the beautiful Chesapeake Bay! You are welcome to bring your own food and drinks to enjoy along the way!

Cost is $300 per charter. Message us if you're interested in booking!