It may be Pete Seeger and his music. If that is the case it started in 1966 when Pete’s record God Bless the Grass was released. I was a nine-year old Michigander at the Kalamazoo Nature Center summer day camp. My friend Jane had [...]

From bottom left: Dorina (seated), Chris Spicer, Sarah Underhill, Emily Feldsburg, and Denise Woodin (May 1980) On May 17, 1980—Clearwater’s 11th birthday--I arrived at Fulton Ferry in Brooklyn for my first week as a volunteer crew member. I felt nervous about traveling [...]

It started with the Weavers’ Carnegie Hall album, a valuable resource for a young guitar player…so I was aware of Pete back in the 60’s. A decade later, I was living in Red Hook, and somehow got invited to sing and play with my [...]

A sailboat is an incredible thing. It’s a complex machine, made of simple machines. Pulleys, levers, wheels and axles orchestrate a ballet of mechanical advantage, powered by friction, muscle and currents of air. On a tall ship, Newtonian physics is taken to a high [...]

Peter at the Tiller, South Street Seaport, 1991 My family, the Cafieros, had been sailors for generations before my grandfather Claudio emigrated to New York City and became the captain of a railroad barge in the harbor. Those barges included living quarters [...]