We recently posted that the organization that operates the Hudson River sloop Clearwater was in serious financial trouble and had canceled its yearly music festival. The Poughkeepsie Journal reports that the executive director, Peter Gross, has resigned, citing “significant differences between his and the organization’s vision to the path to building a stronger future for Clearwater and dealing with the organization’s long-standing financial and structural challenges.”
The good news is that donations are up. Anne Osborn, president of the organization’s board of directors, said the Clearwater organization is continuing with a plan to hold fundraising concerts throughout the year. The first concert, held Sunday in Rosendale, raised $12,000. Additionally, $5,000 in donations poured in between the Jan. 20 financial disclosures and the resignation of Gross on Wednesday. That donation figure is now nearly $13,000 and $15,000 in white oak has been donated for the sloop.
On February 3, 1943, the troopship 
Hōkūleʻa
Hawaii 2
In the late 60s and early 70s, hovercraft ferries were the ships of the future. 
On Friday, more 4,000 longshoremen walked off the job shutting down piers and container terminals in New York and New Jersey. 
If you are in the New York area come help celebrate Lilac, America’s only steam-powered lighthouse tender at a Maritime Mardi Gras fundraiser on Fat Tuesday, February 9th from 6 – 8 PM on 79 Walker Street on the 6th floor, (one block south of Canal between Layfatte and Broadway), in Manhattan. Let the good times roll with cocktails, light appetizers, and a silent auction.
Two American sailors, Bob Weise and Steve Shapiro, both 71, have been attempting to sail across the Atlantic from Norway to Maine in a 40′ gaff rigged sloop named Nora. They began the attempt last July and it has not gone well. In the last seven months, they have been rescued nine times. In this case, persistence is not a virtue.
Yesterday, 
The 
Numbers are fine but sometimes the best way to communicate scale is visually. The image above is what it would have looked like if the largest passenger liner of roughly 100 years ago, 
Here on the west bank of the Hudson River, I spent most of the morning digging out from yesterday’s blizzard, which dumped around 30 inches of snow on us. So, it seems like a good time to think of sunshine and warm breezes. The video, after the page break, is of an Albin Nimbus 42, named Sherry Dawn. This summer I hope to be sailing a sister vessel named Arcturus. Right now Arcturus, ex-Obsession, is being worked on by the good folks at 
Anyone who may doubt that we live on a water planet or that what happens at sea has a huge impact for everyone, even those living far inland, need only look to this year’s 
The sad saga of the Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) continues. The