Allan Jay Aunapu

He is survived by Greg Aunapu (Son), Diane Masaitis (Sister).

Allan was born in Miami, Florida and died in Fort Lauderdale at age 79, while riding a recumbent bicycle to Aldi, his favorite grocery store. The number of adventures Allan experienced in life are far more than many people achieve in a lifetime. He had a fierce free spirit, not meant for the restrictions of old age.

Allan graduated from Ft. Lauderdale High School in 1959, was awarded a football scholarship to the University of Miami, where he played until he was sidelined by a knee injury. Afterwards, following in the wake of his paternal grandfather -- an Estonian ship captain who emigrated to Florida in the early 1900s -- he enlisted in the Coast Guard.

His stint as a “coastie” engendered Allan’s lifelong love for the sea. During the 1960’s, he became a mate aboard the Windjammer Barefoot Cruises, sailing around the islands of the Caribbean, where he developed his distinctive, energetic calypso guitar style while entertaining passengers at night. There, the charming young sailor/musician met Eve, who was taking a trip to celebrate a recent divorce, whom he soon married, adopting her young son, Greg.

His first job after obtaining his captain’s license was in 1966 aboard the Lover Boy, a 137’ three-masted schooner, which he sailed from South Florida to Los Angeles. Soon afterwards, in 1967, he was hired to rig and captain the Mystic Whaler, a reproduction of a late 19th century coastal cargo schooner, built in Tarpon Springs, Florida, which he skippered up the East Coast to Connecticut, where the ship took out passengers from the Mystic Seaport.

In 1968, the schooner sailed to Rhode island for the Newport Folk Festival, where Allan met Pete Seeger, who was on the lookout for a rare commodity, an experienced folk-singing captain to sail a replica of a traditional Hudson River Sloop, the Clearwater, which he envisioned would become the focal point of an environmental effort to clean up the beautiful but polluted river he viewed from his home in Beacon, New York.

This meeting would plot the course for the rest of Allan’s life. He helped oversee the construction and rigging of the massive 106’ gaff-rigged sloop, becoming her first captain when she was launched in South Bristol, Maine in 1969. Deemed “America’s Environmental Flagship,” The Clearwater still sails the Hudson River today, teaching the principles of environmental stewardship, aquatic biology, and protection of our nation's great waterways.

During the Clearwater’s maiden voyage from Maine to New York, the ship docked at towns and cities, where Seeger, Don McLean, Gordon Bok among members of the talented folk-singing crew performed concerts to publicize the environmental project, taking in thousands of dollars in donations along the way.

Later, the Clearwater sailed up and down the Hudson River, stopping at port towns from New York City to Albany. In each port, Pete and the crew performed concerts to bring people down to the riverfront, playing environmental and civil rights songs, salted with traditional gospel and traditional folk-tunes.

While Allan and Eve (also deceased) eventually bought an old Alden schooner and sailed her back to Florida, he stayed involved with the Clearwater organization and the Hudson River activist community for the rest of his years. He made an indelible impression on countless people, setting an example as an environmental and social-justice advocate, a passion he embodied until the very end. In 2019 he was honored at the Clearwater’s 50th Anniversary Revival at Croton-on-the Hudson.

While Allan eventually got his pilot’s license because he “was tired of getting places slowly,” and flew his single-engine Cessna to places around the country, he remained a lifelong sailor who kept an active U.S Coast Guard Merchant Marine Officer's Captain's License until 2011, becoming a sailing consultant in his elder years.

His sister, Diane, remembers her brother’s talents as a songwriter and musician, and loved sitting around with him and other family members singing Harry Belafonte, Caribbean calypso, and folk tunes while Allan led the group. “He would light up a room with his tie-dyed rainbow overalls, a big grin, and sing songs for days,” she reminisces. “He was family to so many and always had a funny story or an interesting current event to share. He especially loved to speak about solutions to environmental problems and loved to hear others’ ideas on how to influence lawmakers and attitudes toward a more protective environmental stance.”

Allan, the eldest of seven siblings, is survived by sister Bonnie Kosiba and her husband, Frank; sister Alinda Boy; sister Diane Masaitis and her husband, Peter; his sister Debra Bailey, and his adopted son, Greg. He is predeceased by his parents, Albert Aunapu and Hazel Aunapu Day, and by his younger brothers, Robert (Bobby) Aunapu, and Dan (Danny) Aunapu.

We will miss your generous spirit, Allan. Thank you for jumping into life with all you had and making the most of your time here. May you rest in sweet peace.