Hutson River

Hutson River - page2

That part of the river is used primarily as a "freeway" for ferries to carry commuters from New Jersey and Staten Island to and from Manhattan, as well as the tons of trash collected each day from the city to be dumped into the ocean from gigantic barges. But none of this information seemed to phase Dirk in the least. He continued checking the wind forecasts and we set out from the Jersey Shore on a friends boat and headed under the Verrazono Bridge for Manhattan. It was a beautiful cloudless Autumn day.

"Knowing that the ferries circulate around the statue and pass by to bring peole over to Staten Island made the launch a little tricky, plus it was hard to launch 7.5 Mosquito kite with a length of six meter on a seven Meter boat. I had good help from the Golden Kids and from Deneen. I jumped into the water and thrifting down the river I rolled out the lines to then start the big adventure."

We cruised around for awhile until we found a relatively safe place where Dirk could launch his kite out of the way of the "traffic". He pumped up his kite on the front of the boat, untangled his lines and jumped into the river. From the boat we held up the kite, Dirk launched it from the water and immediately started cruising. We began to follow him with the boat, having a hard time keeping up, until we realized that he probably wasn't going to get run over on the "freeway". He was now in his own "zone" that one seems to get into when kiteboarding- enjoying being "alone" out on the water playing with the wind.

"The wind was on my side and I started cruising around checking out the river. Boats passed by not knowing what the were seeing stopping checking it out. Cheering to every jump and one sailor passed By saluting and continuing his journey towards the open sea. As time passed by I charged hard and cruised toward the to Staaten Island ferries heading towards me. As I tried to jump the wind got blocked by the huge bodies of the boats and I was glad to get out of there way with hundres of people watching from the ferries."

We shut off the engines and watched for hours, along with the hundreds of commuters and tourists cruising by, as Dirk's kite floated along the rest of Manhattan's skyline. I'll never think of the Hudson River in the same way again.

"I tell you what, all in all the harbour of new york with its barges, ferries, cruiseships and recreational boats passing by, was quite a nice playground for me and my kite, as the sun was beginning to disapear behind the docks of the harbour this adventure was over. It will always be in my mind when I pass through New York and I am sure a hole bunch of other people had the same fun that I had. For sure the city of Big Apple had not seen this kind of watervehicle entering the harbour and the old lady will never forget the blue kite lighten up her day. So long - cut deep fly high."