October 26, 1989 - A Final Autumn CruiseB12
Bridgehampton Realty
Main Street ' 537.1177
WATERFRONT SPECIALISTS ACREAGE LOTS HOUSES
SHINNFCOCK HILLS CONTEMPORARY
Custom built home on 1 1/2 acres with well planned living arrangement of 5000
sq. feet. 5 BR each with a full bath. Family room, living room, gym, Andersen
windows, eat -in designer kitchen, Jen Air, Refg., microwave & wall oven,
Kitchen Aid, dishwasher, ceramic tile and 8' cabinets. 2 1/2 bathrooms, maids
quarters, master suite with very large bedroom, sundeck, fabulous 18 x 18 master
bath with double whirlpool, bidet, shower, double vanity &,private sundeck,
with a view of ocean. Master lounge with private sun deck & ocean view. Roof
deck with panoramic view of Southampton. Attached 4 car garage. Landscaping,
irrigation, 3500 sq. feet of cedar decking 20 x 40 pool. Off St. Andrews Road,
very private, very special at $593,000. Room for Tennis. Other acreage
available.
726 -4476 • 283 -2588 283 -4637 Owner
— LEGAL ADVERTISEMENT—
Notice to All Residents
of the Town of Southampton
Unincorporated Areas
The Town's Fall Leaf Program will commence
Monday, November 6, 1989
Bagged leaves will be picked up first.
Loose leaves must be kept free of brush and branches,
as vacuums will be used.
Small brush and branches will be chipped last.
Wood Chips will be available free to homeowners
at the 3 disposal areas.
Call 728 -3426 for updated information.
5v porrack, New York
OCEANFRONT - 64 ACRES - PRIME DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITY:
Choice Southampton location with tong road frontage, 734' cocan frontage,
spectacular water views & white sandy beach. The last remaining large ppuce'
in this laacioo. f7. SM
Call LANDVEST 212832 -9800 or JIM McLAUCHLEN R.E. 516/283 -0448
Water Mill, New York
MECOX BAY ESTATES - 4.5 ACRES & 400' WATERFRONT: Spectacular
water views from this tasteful renovation by Eugene Form.. on over 4 acres
with 400' of frontage on Mecox Bay. The main house fcamers warm entertain-
ing areas, open beamed ceilings & 3 fiteplaca plus professionally designed
tennis court. gn." pool & dock. $2.5M
Additional 12 acres available Horse lover's dream
Call LANDVEST 212/83298M or AGAWAM REALTY 516/283 -92M
THE SOUTHAMPTON PRESS / OCTOBER 26, 1989
Focus on Nature
A Final Autumn Cruise
By Paul Stoutenbri
Our boat was to be hauled on Monday
which meant if we wanted to take advant-
age of the last dwindling days of fall, now
would be the time.
We started out on one of those rare days
of fall when everything was perfect. The tide
was with us, the wind blew from the best pos-
sible direction and the sky was beautiful and
clear. It was good to be back aboard the
SeaWind again. Each time we go out we say
we should spend more time on her, but those
calendar events always seem to get in our
way.
A single common loon saw us off. One
quick look and he was under water on his end-
less search for food. Probably he, like other
loots, will stay around our East End through-
out the winter. We have basically two spe-
cies of loons that use our East End as their
winter haven. The big common loon, which
is often heard calling across the bay on quiet
days, and the less often seen, smaller red -
throated loon. They are sometimes difficult
to tell apart but the trained eye can usually
pick up the slightly upturned bill o: the red -
throated loon if he gets close enough.
Cormorants, Cormorants, Cormorants
As we sailed down the bay, heading east,
the continuous migration of cormorants told
us their migration south was still going on.
Most of the strings were flying high with the
exception of one that came winging along out
of the east barely skimming the water. They
came so close to our boat that we could see
them panting, bills open, as they flew. Ev-
idently the day's high temperatures and their
long flight had warmed them up and they
were cooling down in true bird fashion. Birds
don't perspire as we do and so panting with
their mouths open is their main method of
cooling. One flock we were to see on Friday
would be the largest I've ever seen. It ap-
peared to be many flocks of cormorants gath-
ered together, some in strings, others in
unorganized groups. There must have been
at least 500 birds in that one mass movement
heading west.
The wind brought us to Dering Harbor on
Shelter Island. Here we could tell the season
was well on its way, for there was less than
half the usual number of boats moored in this
usually busy area. Gone was the yacht club
launch that shuttled back and forth from boat
to clubhouse. Gone were the lighted boats at
night telling of parties and dinners on board.
Arts Council Speakeasy
The East End Arts Council has announced
plans for a benefit party on a speakeasy
theme to be held at Westhampton Beach's In-
ner Circle on Saturday, November 4, from 5
to 8 p.m. Tickets are being sold at $W per per-
son and may be obtained from the Arts Coun-
cil (727 - 091
Guests will be asked to attend in either per-
iod costume or contemporary dress and each
will be given a password that will get him
past the guards at the door. Hors d'oeuvres
will be served, the music will be Dixieland
jazz, and moonshine, white lightning and
bath tub gin are on the beverage list.
There was an eery stillness that lay about us.
It was as if each tethered boat was waiting
for its call to be hauled. The season was over.
We tied up to one of the many empty moor-
ings and settled in for the night. It was too
cool outside to be comfortable and with the
little heat from our cookstove we were snug
and comfortable below.
As the sun set in its clear splendor in the
west, the moon in the east was ready to take
its place as it started to climb. The air was
clear and crisp outside. Soon the moon would
flood the bay and lay its ladder of gold and
silver across the water. Life couldn't be bet-
ter. My only wish was that more people
would make the effort to enjoy it.
Old Reading Brought Out
Books and old magazines that yearned for
reading came off the shelf. The radio played
soft music from the local Southampton sta-
tion and the cabin mellowed with relaxation.
The bright day, the fresh air, the good food,
and the wonderful sail started to play tricks
on our eyes as time passed. Even though the
hour was early, we soon turned in.
The next day we headed for Sag Harbor.
As we rounded Hay Beach and out into
Gardiner's Bay we scared up 10 to 15 white -
winged scoters that were eying us uneasily
as our boat approached. These big black win-
ter sea ducks, with their very visible white
wing patches, are easy to identify. They took
off with some effort, paddling madly with
their webbed feet to get enough speed so they
would be airborne. These, too, will be around
our waters through the coming winter. The
sail was leisurely and I must say not too ef-
ficient. No race to be won here.
On our way up toward the harbor from the
east we remembered the treacherous string
of rocks where cormorants now stood on
guard and the sand flats to starboard that
take advantage of the unknowing. Just a few
years ago I spent a good part of a morning
pulling a friend's boat off that flat just east
of the big rock channel marker.
When we finally reached the harbor, there
was much more activity here but still you
could see the empty, buoys, a signal that
many boats already had been hauled. We
picked one buoy and tied up and made plans
for going ashore. An osprey circled the har-
bor, looking for his evening meal of bunkers.
Most ospreys by now have headed south
where fishing will be better. Some will go as
far as the Amazon River in South America
while others will fish the waters of our south-
ern states and the Caribbean, only to return
to their same nesting spots and same mate
next spring.
By the time we were tied up it was four
o'clock but we wanted to get a few supplies
and so made a quick trip into town. That
whetted our appetite for the following day.
Again that evening the moon dazzled us as
we lay quietly in that wonderful harbor.
We walked the back streets of that quaint
and beautiful town the following day. We
found pride rides high here and rightly so, for
what makes Sag Harbor so unique is that it
is one town that has been able to hold on to
its distinctive character. We wandered into
the shops and even bought a few sale items
that tempted us.
That afternoon we headed home, for we
had a dinner date we didn't want to miss. But
when you're tied to a dinner date schedule
things don't always work out so well; we
found no wind to help us along. We motored
all the way home. It was pleasant and warm
but nothing like sailing. It was a good thing
that we were headed back, though, for bad
weather was predicted that night and sure
enough it came bringing high winds, thunder
and lightning —all the things you wouldn't
want if you were aboard a boat. We were glad
we had taken advantage of the good days of
fall to see the East End for one last time from
the water.
HARRY H. WILDE inc.
BUILDERS AND GENERAL CONTRACTORS
80 NORTH MAIN STREET, MUTHAMPTON 283 -0201
Call the Proven Leader in
Real Estate Ind Insurance Brokerage
516- 283 -1030
Southampton
Established 1946
CMaurice B.
unningh_
Real Estate - Insurance - Appraisals
The American Hotel provided the perfect setting for a reading of James A. Heme's 1899 play
"Sag Harbor." Above, Portmanteau Players, left to right, Carl Browngardt, Cynthia Breining
and Marilyn Downes. — Alberto Musrhi Photo
Sag Harbor: A Period Piece
Read with Relish by Game Cast
By Lee Davis
A charmingly bewildering grab bag of
sometimes connected scenes from James A.
Herne's 1899, well- forgotten play "Sag Har-
bor" delighted a dazed but dandy audience
that overflowed an impromptu reading room
at the American Hotel on Sunday night. Pro-
duced, directed, narrated and acted in by the
indefatigable, imaginative and sometimes
mysterious Charles Mann, it couldn't have
been presented in a more appropriate setting
than the American Hotel. Flowered wallpa-
per, gas chandeliers, gewgaws and glass -
front bookcases framed the game cast of
locals, in period costumes.
Gloriously unfazed by the last- minute de-
fection, or desertion, or something, of super-
star Phoebe Legere (maybe the presence of
two smashing blondes with talent in the cast
kept the chanteuse from chanting Herne's
lines), the group of readers survived nicely
and played cheerily upon missed cues, mis-
placed pages, and a strange interpolation in
a 19th - century piece of the Leonard
Bernstein -Betty Comdon /Adolph Greene
number "Lucky to Be Me" from the jazzy
1944 show "On the Town."
Then again, the light touch of Mr. Mann's
unlinking narrative ( "The lack of plot thick-
ens," etc.) gave the evenings welcome touch
of whimsy. As the flivver lurched forward
with a beanbag of scenes, from a coughing
exhaust came wisps of windblown smoke
from the past, when Bridgehampton was a
suburb of Sag Harbor, when all the men were
leaving for the Klondike, when scallop fish-
ing was a living, and a good job for a retired
sailor was a position on the Montauk Boat
Line. Like a silent movie flashed on the
screen by a drunken projectionist, the past
flickered and faded, focused and unfocused.
Maybe it happened; maybe it didn't.
The cast —Ira Gasman as a growling sea
captain, Carl Browngardt as a fresh -faced
juvenile, Encie Babcock as a grandmotherly
type, Janice Hull as one melodious matron
and a couple of others, Cynthia Breining as
a bright and lovestruck ingenue, and Mari-
lyn Downes as a lovely and also lovestruck
choir singer, all acquitted themselves with
admirable aplomb and diction and spirit. The
audience loved them, every one, and right-
fully so.
In other words, Phoebe was unmissed; Mr.
Mann, doing a hat trick worthy of the Rang-
ers, played her and several dozen other parts
with the derring -do of a lion- tamer. It was a
whirlwind evening, a breeze from the unreal
past that floated the gaggle of an audience
from the 19th-century setting of the play out
into the 19th-century setting of Sag Harbor's
streets satisfied and entertained, light of
heart, and a little light of head.
Readings at Canio's
The literary weekend at Canio's Books in
Sag Harbor will open on Saturday, October
28, when Ed Stever will read at a p.m. On
Sunday, October 29, Canio's will offer a dou-
ble bill beginning at 3 p.m. Jane Augustine
will read new poems and Joan Ullman
Schwartz, whose courtroom reporting has
appeared in this paper, will read from her ac-
counts of recent trials.
Events at Canto's are free and open to the
public. Refreshments will be served.
Box 604 - Shelter Island Heights. N.V. 11965 - (516) 749 -0182
CUSTOM HOMES
Roger Cullen,
Custom Builder
gardlner's
construction
35650 Route 48 - Peconic N.V. 11958 -GW - (516) 765 -5060
Open Houses Sunday, October 29, 1989
BRIDGEHAMPTON ... Village Charmer, completely furnished home of interior
designer on shy acre right in Bridgehampton ... Walk to stores, restaurants & trans-
portation ..... ....... ....... ......... ........... $495,000
Open House from 1:00 to 3:00 on School Street south of Montauk Highway
SOUTHAMPTON... Village Traditional, walk to shops and restaurants... impressive
interior with gourmet kitchen, custom cabinetry, cathedral ceilings, French doors,
excellent construction ... 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, 2 car garage, AC ....... $480K
Open House from 11:00 to 2:00, Coopers Farm Rd., off Windmill
SAG HARBOR BEST BUYS Man
Brand New Contemporary Salt Box - 3 bedrooms, 3 R. Siwiicki,Jr
baths, eat -in kitchen, dining room, fireplace . $215,000 REAL E,STAIT
Charming 4 Bedroom Cape Cod on shy acre, neat as
apin ... owner moving & eagerto get on with it..$205,000 t t