– Phil Frandino, Mystc Whaler Educator

I began my voyage of life at sea up the estuary of the river that flows both ways, sitting in a rowboat with my father. . . a seven-year-old, doin’ some fishin’ .  Not for food.  The water was pretty dirty back then. . . but for sport, comraderie, and because my father loved being out in nature — in peace.  Hooked by the kettles of Harriman State Park with fishing, swimming, camping, and once taking a girl dipping, the beauty, grandeur, and solitude of the Hudson Highlands was appreciated as a youth, but I don’t think quite totally loved yet.   I also remember, as a teenager, long fireworks displays on the Fourth of July at West Point happily gathered with family and friends.  The running of many a cross country race at Bear Mountain State Park, (up the ski jump switchback and around Hessian Lake) were more memories brought back when I saw the flagpole on the hill just south and west of the Bear Mountain Bridge as the Schooner, Mystic Whaler sailed up Muheahkanituck.  I was back home.

Raised in Central Valley New York, just ten miles as the eagle flies west of the Hudson, I headed for the sea after two years at the local community college to get the elusive marine biology degree at the College of Charleston in South Carolina.  But, with swimming on scholarships five hours a day, keeping company with co-eds, trying to dive and surf and yes, drinking cold beer (a necessity in the hot sultry south for a transplanted Yankee), plus the rough classes, something had to give . . . it was the studies.  Friends took me sailing to the Bahamas shortly after college, and i was hooked on sailing life.  I managed to acquire a boat, get a teaching degree, and live the life of a millionaire for close to a decade sailing and continuing to appreciate the beauty and awe of nature by and on the water.

Taking my 5th grade students on field trips to the beach and to my boat cemented my belief in the benefit of a “hands-on, experiential, inquiry-based field trip”.  Inner-city youth who had  minimal contact with the ocean so close to their homes were captivated at being swabs for a day.  When the marina shut off life for livaboards, the boat was sold, but the SEA HAB (think rehab. without grog) was needed and volunteering and working on South Carolina’s tall ship Spirit of South Carolina allowed me to keep on teaching youth on the water.  Then, the Clearwater opportunity arose and I quickly applied, thinking, “This could be pretty cool.”  Not only was it cool, it was downright glacier ice cool, as I got to travel on the Hudson River for three months experiencing what few lucky souls get to do — see America’s first and mighty river from the water.

From the first week of training with Clearwater experts Dave Conover, Maija Niemesto Linda Richards, Tom Lake, and a slew of environmental scientists, I felt I was back home.  Maija led the new educators and interns on a teambuilding history-oriented hike, and I looked over the Hudson from atop Mt. Beacon and viewed a great perspective of Storm King Mountain, the gateway to the highlands from the north, and viewed off in the distance Skunnemunk Mtn., the Schwangunks and north toward Poughkeepsie from the bridge.  From kayaking to Bannerman’s Island with Angel to traveling to Esopus Nature Center and seining with Dave and Eli Schloss, and then down to Cary Institute, the training for educators and interns made us able to pass the enthusiasm and knowledge on to the volunteers who gave a week of their time and shelled out wampum for their stay aboard the Mystic Whaler.  They are the backbone of the organization.  Comments from teachers all season reflected the fantastic time their students had on the trips, many saying it was the best field trip ever!  Thanks volunteers, you did it. 

After being away for decades, traveling the Hudson for me was a joyful coming home to meet my brothers, in-laws, cousins and friends whom I was lucky enough to meet at EVERY port o’ call   But it was the trawling, the hauling in of the Otter net, the raising of the sails, the singing of the songs, the teaching of the tykes, and finally the view from the water of both sides of this great river that made the experience so grand.  Learning about the impressive and staggering geology and creation of the Hudson, its social and political growth and development, its place in environmental activism firsts, developed my appreciation of the magnificence, awe, and beauty of the river to gigantic proportions.  Time and again while sailing on the Mystic Whaler, especially through MY Hudson Highlands, (a personal bias, the most spectacular area of the river), I repeated the same comment to Captain John over and over, “What A Life We Got Here In The Moment”.  I always loved the river and the Highlands, but not as much as I do now.