By Maija Niemisto, Director of Shipboard Education
Clearwater’s new education staff had an exciting first day on the Hudson River this spring. Jocelyn Bertovich and Tom O’Dowd, our new Education Specialists, will be sailing onboard Clearwater this year to lead our sailing classroom programs. The education department is excited to welcome them to the community!
We started off their season with a training session at the Esopus Meadows Environmental Center and a walk out to the Esopus Lighthouse on Monday, March 21st. The tide was estimated to be especially low because of the recent “Perigee-syzygy moon” or “super moon” when the celestial body passes only 221,566 miles away from earth, on its closest path in the past 18 years.
While the moon’s elliptical path follows a predictable pattern, the Hudson Valley weather does not. Despite near blizzard conditions, Tom and Jocelyn bravely walked beside me as we made our way through waist-deep river in rubber waders.
The Esopus Lighthouse lies far out in the center of the Hudson River south of Kingston and marks an incredibly shallow stretch that is dangerous to tugs, barges and historic sloops. With a charted depth of only 1 to 2 feet all the way out to the lighthouse at low tide, walking to the middle of the river is occasionally possible there.
As the moon floated close to earth exerting a strong gravitational pull on Hudson and Atlantic Ocean, we calmly waded through the slack water and shielded our eyes from the snow. On this particular day, the spring melt waters from the watershed combined with recent heavy rains meant the river water ran much higher than average. We only made it halfway out to the lighthouse when we found the icy water dangerously close to the tops of our waders.
The tide began to rise again quickly as we got back to the environmental center. Tom and Jocelyn show the true grit, determination, and high spirits that Clearwater loves. Despite a thwarted mission and unreasonable weather, they were excited to have spent time on the water and hope that the next super moon in 2029 will afford us another chance to wade into the mighty Hudson.
