Latest Clearwater Blog Posts
25 Years Along the Shore: Tales from Tideline
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 [...]
30 Years and Counting
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 [...]
The Crew, the River, and Why I Keep Coming Back
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 [...]
Clearwater Member Spotlight: Bridget Kenny
Growing up in the Hudson Valley, Bridget Kenny attended the Great Hudson River Revival with her parents, listened to Pete Seeger’s music, and encountered the sloop in the 1980s at the Strawberry Festival in Newburgh. A few years later, she sailed on Clearwater for [...]
From Queerwater to Crew: Discovering My Place on the Sloop Clearwater
The first time I heard of The Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, I was 13 in a community center, being handed a flyer about “Queerwater”- a 3 day youth program that I was just barely too young for. I hadn’t given it much thought, considering [...]
Notes from the Helm: Reflections on 2025 Sailing Season
The change of season brings a time of transition for the sloop and crew, as we downrig Clearwater and begin winter maintenance. Each sailing season on the Hudson is unique, shaped by the mix of new and returning crew, weather conditions, and all the [...]