Here's the account from the crew of the "Clearwater" about the incident (complete with video of a Coast Guard response boat ordering them out of the line-up).
The orders to remove the "Clearwater" from the Sail 4th Parade of Sail reportedly came from “above" the Sail 4th representative that they spoke to.
https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1551535113670587&id=100064423404613
A sailboat, the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, was removed from the Sail4th 250 Parade of Ships for displaying banners about climate justice and clean water.
Source: ig/jackiemarieburton, ig/sloopclearwater
I just watched a video that I thought was a comedy sketch about the “coder" who vibe codes something, doesn't understand why it doesn't work, and has no interest in learning to figure it out. Very droll, right?
But it wasn't a comedy sketch. It was an ad for Claude Code.
"Hi, our system will turn out broke-as-shit results and de-skill your employees, but what's cool is it can help them work out WHY it's broken. Maybe. If they can be bothered.”
That is … a very odd sales pitch.
One more thing about "Clearwater”, the sloop banned from the Sail 4th parade due to banners with political messages. Here it is the day before, flying the Progress Pride and Black Lives Matter flags, among others.
Another vessel in Friday's lineup flew the An Appeal to Heaven flag, which is possibly appropriate (Washington operated a fleet of schooners that flew the flag). But the Appeal flag is also a symbol of the Stop the Steal election denial movement, so …
Anyway, go “Clearwater”.
It's firmly on brand for the USA's uniquely cursed 250th birthday that last night's fireworks display in New York City reportedly set fire to the Brooklyn Bridge.
The air display that accompanied the Parade of Sail was divided by type: fixed-wing aircraft went up the Hudson, rotary-wing aircraft went up the East River. And a trio of V-22 Ospreys, for no obvious reason, circled round and round Liberty Island.
This is actually something military helicopter flights over NYC like to do: if you track them, you'll find they almost always do a couple of orbits of the Statue. So maybe the Ospreys were just giving some senior officers a private tour.
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Another useful fact: you may be totally crap at recognizing national flags (not helped by the fact that nautical flags are often subtly different from the regular variety), but if you are SLIGHTLY less crap at recognizing them than the people around you, you can pass for a genius.
Also, even if you don’t remember what the Peruvian flag looks like, if a vessel has “Peru" written in big letters on the forward staysail, guessing that it is in fact Peruvian will earn you mad props.
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The sloop “Clearwater" entered the line-up of sailing vessels flying banners that said things like “Indigenous Rights”, “Racial Justice" and "Climate Solutions”.
For these un-American sentiments, the sloop was immediately removed from the parade by two Coast Guard vessels, because God forbid patriotic Americans should have to think about things like racial justice or indigenous rights on July 4th after they've successfully avoided thinking about them for two and a half centuries.
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The people organizing the event built a set of bleachers (a raised wooden seating platform) on Governor’s Island, offering the best view of the Parade of Sail and all the warships and everything else. Seats on the bleachers were available to VIPs and to people who wanted to pay top dollar for the best views of all the ships.
On Friday night, a line of thunderstorms blew through and totally destroyed the bleachers. Oops.
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Someone gave me some electrolyte powder to put in my water bottle, and it was only after I had tipped the whole lot in that I discovered it was Lychee Sorbet flavor.
Anyway, if anyone needs a stripper name, or a name for a new Bond Girl, may I suggest Lychee Sorbet?
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My plans to sort-of live-tweet the Parade of Sale pretty much failed for two reasons, which were (a) it turns out that there's not much you can say about a tall ship procession, except "Wow, these tall ships sure are pretty,” and (b) it was so hot that my brains melted and ran out of my ears.
But I can tell you a few more useful facts …
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July 4th is a patriotic holiday at which Americans gather in large numbers to cheer for their favorite warplane.
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Excited planespotter: “B-1! B-2! B-52! That’s MY tax dollars!!!”
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Fireboats doing water displays look like bugs with long feathery antennae.
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Boat goes past labeled “FBI Dive Team” and I picture men in black suits with earpieces doing triple gainers off the high board.
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Firefighter behind me: “people complained about the sonic booms. C’mon! This is America!
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Standing by the railing in Battery Park, waiting for the tall ships.
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Delict of Schism would be a good band name.
My phone just displayed a message that read "Charging will resume when iPhone returns to normal temperature" and I'm like "Same, iPhone. Same.”