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November 23, 1995 - A Wild, Wet and Windy Day at Montauk4A'• Thd Suffolk'iimes'� No'vembe`r Photo by Paul Stoutenburgh SURF AT MONTAUK —With the storms of the past few weeks, Montauk was the place to see nature on the rampage at its best. Waves charged against each other, creating a spectacle seldom seen. A Wild, Wet and Windy Day at Montauk What is the word I'm searching for? Spectacular? Magnificent? Fabulous? Splendid? Overwhelming? Superb? None of them seem to fit what we've just expe- rienced at Montauk. It all started last week when Dennis Puleston, Long Island's grand champion of the bird world, called to ask Barbara and I to join a group of enthusiasts out at Montauk Point early Sunday morning. Of course, we jumped at the invitation and it was circled in red on our calendar. Then the crazy weather of last weekend moved in and gave us 60- and 70- mile - per -hour gusts of turbu- lent wind from the south, only to be reversed on Sunday to give us the wildest weather any of us had ever seen at our appointed rendezvous at the point. We arrived before most were up and around. The sky was overcast and sprinkles followed us most of the way over. Just after we passed the long stretch of road outside of Amagansett we could get glimpses of the ocean to the south and knew this was going to be a special day, for huge breakers were charging ashore. The surf was churning up great bil- lows of windblown spray. We had to get closer so we went into the state park's campground on the ocean. Here we pulled into one of the campsites and walked out onto the ocean beach. The wind indicator, that consisted of how many times my hat blew off, told us the wind had now shifted to the north and was roaring down on us at 35 to 40 mph, creating a tremendous spectacle before us. A park ranger came along and we chatted with him about the tremendous show going on and he said, "This is nothing! You should see it out * A at the point!" That did it. We were in the car and off in seconds. An Unexpected Spectacle Our appetite for what was before us was increasing as we approached the point, for every once in a while we'd get another glimpse of the roaring ocean to our right and the adrenaline went up an- other notch, but nothing had prepared us for what we saw as we rounded the road just opposite the famous Montauk Light. There was a scene that almost took our breath away. Even though we knew this magnificent sight of water on the ram- page wouldn't stop soon, we rushed to get into the parking lot and out of the car to get closer. Our friends had just arrived and they were in a state of jubi- lation, as we were, so — bundled up for the cold and equipped with scopes and glasses to magnify the view — we all headed out. We stood in awe of the sea before us. I felt it was rather like our watching the boiling lava flows in Hawaii a few years ago as they poured over the cliff and plunged into the sea, creating great roar- ing noises and columns of steam. Here the great Atlantic had been churned into huge waves from the south for the past few days and now, with the changing wind from the north, those waves collided off Montauk, creating an inferno of water. The two great forces of the sea piled waves and spray high into the air only to be whipped back by the blustering winds from the newly arrived cold front. Charging, great foam walls of water continually bat- tered their way around the point. Everywhere you looked were huge expans- es of sea water in fantastic plumes of spray being thrown up by the churning sea. We had come to look for sea birds but it was hard to keep our eyes off the ever - changing scene before us. When we could break away we saw through the wild tur- moil hundreds of gannets diving and glid- ing amongst the spray, almost as if they were enjoying the new challenge before them. I photographed gannets at Perce Rock off the Gaspe Peninsula in Canada many years ago. They nested there on great cliffs and as I sat above photographing they flew almost within an arm's length of me. A handsome bird, unsurpassed in its ability to dive for fish below and perfectly fitted for its ocean wanderings. From 60 to 80 feet above the water I watched these white, streamlined rockets plummet with folded wings into the water to catch their meal. Here at Montauk they were fishing with the winds and crashing seas below in con- tinuous motion. Now those with scopes started to pick up groups of scoters, those big, black sea ducks we sometimes see in Focus on Nature by Paul Stoutenburgh 169w i wwL nw..L 75 Years Ago Nov. 19, 1920 Riverhead Theater to Open: Riverhead's hand- some new photoplay house, the Capitol Theatre, has been completed and will open on the evening of Wednesday, Nov. 24, with an elaborate picture program, special acts and cere- monies inaugurating the opening of this $100,000 theater. The Capitol will furnish picture -play programs that will give Riverhead and the vicinity the same elaborate pro- grams as seen in the New York photoplay houses. By arrangement with Famous Players, Lasky and other big pro- ducers, fast -rum features will be shown as soon as released, and the best Paramount and other high -class pictures will be presented in a program that will include an eight -reel fea- ture, a travelogue, a comedy and a newsreel, together with music by the $15,000 organ. 50 Years Ago Nov. 23, 1945 Editor Goes West: Lawyer Kenneth Goldin, who was at one time in the newspaper business in Greenport as the editor and proprietor of the North Fork Herald, in com- pany with others owns and publishes the Flatbush Observer in Brooklyn. This weekly publication has a large circula- tion, especially in the territory in which it is published. our local waters during the winter. We were also seeing some small white birds that turned out to be Bonaparte gulls and common terns. The Bonaparte is an ocean gull we see mostly during the winter. Its size is almost the same as our common tern. Of course, we had the herring and black- backed gulls that were reaping the spoils being tossed up by the surf. At one point.t watched two gulls dining on small lobsters. I only wish I'd been there first. Walking Under the Light We had to explore the area under the lighthouse. It's been reinforced with great boulders and rocks that make fairly safe walking provided you're surefooted. As we made our way around to the sheltered side of the point we came upon five or six surf fishermen trying their luck at bass. We saw none caught but did see two or three lures lost or hung up on submerged rocks. When we got to where the wind wasn't howling quite as badly and the waters were a bit less turbulent, we saw over a thousand common eiders feeding offshore. Their name might strike a chord for it's the down from these northern ducks that makes the famous eiderdown jackets and quilts. Most were common eiders but I'm sure on a quieter day we'd have found some of the more strikingly colored king eiders amongst them. Dennis's still -sharp eyes even picked out what he was sure was an Iceland gull, one of the rare visitors from the north. Someone else picked up a few brant, which is something like our Canada goose but smaller. We all wondered what it was doing at Montauk, for See Focus, next page Servicemen's Column: Donald Boerum, who is stationed at the U.S. Navy Separation Center at Sampson, N.Y., spent Thanksgiving with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Boerum. 25 Years Ago Nov 20, 1970 Maternity Request Refused: "We were stunned," reported Mrs. Jonathan Richmond, at the denial of two requests presented by the Citizens for a Full Service Hospital to the Board of Trustees of Eastern Long Island Hospital. The five women, representing the group, met with five members of the board last Thursday and asked 1. for an extension of the March 31 deadline for closing of materni- ty services at Eastern Long Island Hospital and 2. for a meeting with all 19 members of the board. "They turned us down flatly," she said, adding that the women were surprised at the total rejection in view of the resolutions from the Town Board, Greenport Village Board and letters of support they have received from 15 to 16 organizations in town. Mrs. Richmond said the group's representatives at the meeting had been asked not to disclose details of the dis- cussion with the board members. However, she said, they were "disappointed."