It was so very Southampton: A seaplane approached the beach at Towd Point Thursday
morning as a red jeep drove down to the water to meet it. I launched nearby on a 6.2 (lit)
but jibed just a few hundred yards out to come back and watch the seaplane
action…reach and jibe, reach and jibe and snoop, reach and jibe etc. The pilot nudged the plane
onto the beach, and then jumped out the side to open the door for his
passengers. They were a
perfect Hamptons couple…him with the old comfortable shirt and shorts and
sandals that are just the thing for a private door-to door plane ride, her the
stunning tall Blonde (almost as stunning as my wife) with the 10,000 watt
smile, and a very large stately dog. Given the wind and chop the plane was bouncing quite a
bit, and the pilot escorted the three of them to the beach.
I was still reaching and jibing and snooping (I adjusted my
sailing track so I could snoop on both tacks) when the luggage procession
began. As the pilot and the driver
led a parade of colorful bags
marching carefully down the pontoon, the Blonde waved at me. So I of course A: waved back, and B: focused on ripping
dramatic jibes and jumps for my audience. Then I thought “Doh! What if they’re waving because they know me (not
impossible, particularly if an old sailing buddy had recently acquired a huge
dog) so I sailed in to the beach.
They were not who I thought they might be, but instead just some
Beautiful People who waved at a windsurfer (and said some nice things to me on
the beach, too.) But enough
people watching, it was time to play with that seaplane!
I quickly got back out into the bay, jibed on the outside,
then jibed on the inside, hoping to drag race the plane when the pilot hit the
throttle. But after
pulling away from the beach all he did was shlog, for a full minute. Wasn’t this guy gonna take off? Then it occurred to me that
he thought I was nuts, and might get in his way doing something like drag
racing him, and somehow screw up his take off. So I shot way upwind and behind him, and waved. He immediately hit the
throttle. I immediately
jibed, but never had a shot at a match race as he was up in the air toot sweet.
(That was the original post. I sailed until 1PM in building winds and water…sailing
a 77 liter board and overpowered on a 5.3 before I left. 30 minutes later a seaplane stuck a pontoon and crashed during takeoff just two miles east of where I’d been windsurfing, just off of Bayview Oaks in the Little Peconic. Nobody was injured. My guess is it was a different plane (because I watched “mine” fly away) but I don’t know for sure. What I do know is there were steep three-foot ramps out there, and it’s not hard to imagine a plane’s pontoon pearling in one of them. In any event I’m glad nobody was hurt. Local boaters went out and brought the crew and passengers back to shore, according to reports.)
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