DEP organizational chart for 9/11 emergency response, Sept 2001

Outdoors z z Finally, it was time to go. “Line up ■<

o o like a chorus line,” instructed Spitz,

iKAYaiCIW CD the trip leader. We arrayed ourselves g perpendicular to the river, hows o pointed toward New Jersey. When the “0 c I o coast was clear of barges, tugboats, CT o o cn By Mary Voboril 'y powerboats. Circle Liners and other motor craft, we slid into the river and o' "0 STAFF WRITER o

There’s angled into the l’/2-knot current, CD paddles windmilling under the over­ 9L HE HUDSON River looked cast sky. O fast, vast and formidable. In o Our chorus line quickly fractured. o the distant morning mist, a When all were across the river, we c foghorn moaned. 3 I paused to reconnoiter. Then we pad- CD But the river this recent Saturday 3 also was agreeably warm and mostly died from one calm “embayment” to

Magic flat, its surface lightly riffled by a another, passing glossy Jersey City brine-scented breeze. office buildings, docked Circle Liners In fact, said veteran kayaker Harry and empty piers. Escorts smoothly Spitz, conditions were “on the gentler glided up or dropped back, offering side. Very mild” — a fine day, in other tips on technique or just encourage­ words, to slide into the currents of the ment. slate-gray Hudson and kayak to the Overhead, seagulls swooped and

On The Statue of Liberty National Monument, about two miles away. cried. The distant mist thinned. The And this group excursion from Pier foghorn stopped its rhythmic moan. 26, home of the Downtown Boathouse We darted across a buoyed canal on Manhattan’s southwest tip, was entrance and soon slipped into the entirely free. There wasn’t even a glassy waters behind Ellis Island, charge for a locker, much less a only to be outpaced by two outrigger kayak. "The rationale for all this free-ness, a boathouse flier says, is “to create a public constituency” for access to the water, not just the waterfront, in Hudson River Park, a narrow public space now under construction. The long-term goal is to establish a net­ Hudson work of staffed public boathouses throughout the ribbonlike park. A public constituency for free bleipscfoc/ kayaking at Pier 26, between Cham­ bers and Canal Streets, was in full oiTilii lot force for the statue trip. Roughly twice as many kayakers showed up as there were available kayaks. Selection was by lottery, and the eventual flotilla was made up of 14 walkup kayakers in four double and six single kayaks, plus myself and four escorts. After donning life vests, also free, «R we were assigned stable, self-bailing, M “sit on top” kayaks, rather than the sleek, spray-skirted boats used by wi seasoned paddlers. Fledgling-like, we paddled into the protected “embay­ ment” area just north of the boat­ PhntnB / .inlin Cinines house, with escorts gauging our pad­ dling expertise. Kavakers head Into the Hudson from Pier 26 and the Downtown Boathouse.