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YONKERS, N.Y. A 106-foot boat and its cargo of school children ran aground in Yonkers Monday.
Nearly three dozen students were aboard The Clearwater, a sloop built by folk singer Peter Seeger to save the Hudson River, Monday afternoon during a planned trip when unexpected low waters cut their ride short.
The boat ran aground around 1:15 p.m. in an area where the Hudson and Saw Mill Rivers meet, between the city pier and the Science Barge, the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater said in a statement.
The vessel is hard aground, at a spot in the Hudson River that should have had enough water, the statement said.
No students were injured in the incident and even continued their scheduled educational programs aboard the boat while they waited to disembark, the boats operators said.
The group, which Newsday reports was made up of fifth-graders at Irvington Middle School, were eventually evacuated around 3:30 p.m. by members of the Westchester County Police Department.
The boats captain attributed the grounding of the nearly 50-year-old boat to unexpected debris that washed out of the Saw Mill River during recent rain.
There was no way for the captain to know that said debris was located there: it does not appear on charts and has recently appeared in a spot that we have sailed over thousands of times without incident, Hudson River Sloop Clearwater said.
The boat remained lodged in the spot into the evening and was expected to remain there late into Monday evening until the tide raised high enough to dislodge it.
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