On Sunday, August 29, Pete Seeger was among 45 protesters who engaged in a very creative act of civil disobedience, for which they were not arrested. The New York Harbor Police and the U.S. Coast Guard severely curtailed maritime traffic around New York City beginning that day. Only dinner cruises for GOP delegates and some other very select vessels were permitted to approach the NYC shore. Otherwise the waters were off limits until after the RNC.

What Pete and the others did was go to Weehauken, New Jersey, and charter the Richard Robbins, an 1870 schooner, supposedly for a southbound sail towards Sandy Hook. Instead they raised banners with slogans like "Peace" and "Bush Lied" and "No Blood for Oil" and started sailing east towards Manhattan Island. They were quickly surrounded by the Harbor Police and the Coast Guard who blocked their planned route. However, they were not boarded, and no arrests were made.