Anyone sailed the Rappahannock?

[Anne]

I love visiting the wineries around here, and noticed a couple are on the Rappahannock river. Has anyone done any sailing on the Rappahannock? How is it? How far up can you get a sailboat?

[Daren Magness]

Port Royal has a bridge with a 50' vertical clearance, if you can clear that, you can continue upstream under power till about Bernards Bar. I have only sailed Carter's Creek and out to Windmill Point and then north on the Bay out of the Rappahannock. Check your charts before attempting the upper reaches of the Rappahannock - it gets narrow and shallow.

[Anne]

Thank's Daren. I'm a newbie at cruising, and the chart was hard to follow - it shows half the twisted river on top and half of it on bottom. :-) And the places I'm looking at are south of Port Royal, so I should be ok.

[Gaye Slaughter Currier]

Anne,
I have been up as far as Urbanna, I am new to the Bay but have enjoyed sailing the Rappahannock. I have visited White Fences by car, it is located in Irvington, VA. I am sure Larry Wilson knows more than I do. He sails the Rappannock a lot.

Gaye

[Anne]

Thanks, Gaye. One of the wineries is across from Urbanna, in Irvington. The I thought would be close enough to check out is in Warsaw, which looks to be a small skip and a jump from the river.

[Larry Wilson]

Anne,
If you want the experience, it's possible to navigate all the way to Fredricksburg.Not sure that you could do alot of sailing much past Port Royal, but motoring is possible. No services though between Port Royal and F'burg that I'm aware of.
Irvington, is an easy trip, as is Whitestone. Kilmarnock is on Indian Creek above Windmill Point, and an easy sail. Larry

[Roger]

Mario where on the western branch of the Corrotoman do you go? We go to the eastern branch up to what we call "10 foot hole" because of the depth. I'm sure you have been there too, great little spit of beach and very sheltered. Never anchored on the western branch though.
Roger