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 to the city alone; I was 18 years old. I had no idea how to get to Brooklyn and I worried that I wouldn’t find Heather, the other volunteer, in Port Authority. And there was the exciting yet intimidating idea of spending a week with a boatful of strangers. But Heather found me and I quickly relaxed.
That first day was long, filled with cake and music, balloons, beer and apples, and sailing. By the time we finished dinner, I felt a deep peace. Earlier, when I first saw the Statue of Liberty and gazed at the lower Manhattan skyline from the water, I excitedly asked, “where are we now?” and “what’s that?” and I wanted to run away to sea forever.
After just a few days, the rhythm of my life became “hands to the mainsheet! Hold the throat!”, flemishing a line into neat coils, singing river songs and talking to kids about hogchokers and water pollution. Dinners in the main cabin were a time of camaraderie and Clearwater traditions, of crowding around a table laden with plates, mugs, chopsticks, and delicious vegetarian meals cooked in a wood- fueled oven. If you found a bay leaf in your food, you would pass it to the person on your left and kiss them on the cheek until the herb had made its way around the table. Often, we would sing grace while clasping hands.
Denise and her friend Melanie at the North River Friends of Clearwater Festival in Albany. (August 1979)
The end of my week arrived at South Street Seaport in Manhattan and I begged Captain Peter Wilcox and Relief Captain Cate Cronin to let me stay another week. There was an empty bunk, so they said yes. Louise, the bo’sun, returned from her vacation and said to me “I had picked you out as one of those who couldn’t leave. You just had that look in your eyes.”
“Someday,” I wrote late in May, “I’ll come back and I won’t ever have to leave.”
It didn’t take long for me to return. The second weekend in June, the Beacon Sloop Club held its annual Strawberry Festival and I talked my parents into driving 90 miles downriver for the day. Then, the next weekend, the long-awaited Great Hudson River Revival, a two-day celebration of music, food, environmental activism, and sailing.
My only goal that summer was to get back to the river, and amazingly, I was accepted for a week in August. Once again, I headed south, my sleeping bag, clothes and sun block stuffed into a large backpack. This time I knew what to expect and I couldn’t wait.
After another amazing week, the last day arrived with such end of summer finality. “I can’t believe it’s over,” I told Chris, a fellow crew member, sadly. We talked about Clearwater friendships and parting and agreed that there will always be a bond between us.
In September, I traveled several hours by bus for Clearwater’s annual meeting in Beacon. I stayed on the boat for three days, only reluctantly returning to my college campus in Western New York. I sat alone on my sleeping bag at Garrison’s train station in my too-big Clearwater t-shirt and dirty hair in braids, and wept with the grief of leaving again.
Denise aboard the Clearwater (1990s)
One thing I’ve learned since that mournful day–the circle goes ‘round and like the old song, remains unbroken. New people are constantly being welcomed, and news of family travels far; the ties are strong and many times, goodbyes are only temporary.
“It’s the little things that make Clearwater hard to leave,” I wrote in January 1981. “It’s laughing and talking as we grease blocks in the bitter cold. It’s chopping ice and deck wash, teaching water chemistry, sunburn, rope splinters, a good night’s sleep, a wood-burning stove in the winter and the cool breeze of an all-night transit in the summer. It’s music, dancing, juggling, and the people, and the boat, and the river intertwined.
About Denise:
Denise Woodin is the Director of Community Impact and Social Responsibility for the Rye YMCA in Rye, NY. After falling in love with the Clearwater and the river in 1980, she spent many happy weeks volunteer crewing until the mid-1990s. Denise also volunteered at the Great Hudson River Revival for decades, helped with winter maintenance in Saugerties, and served on Clearwater’s board of directors. She is grateful that her daughter, now 23, was able to grow up as a “Clearwater kid”.
The original version of this piece was written in 1981.
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