Sunset over Fort Pond Bay as seen from Duryea’s Lobster, March 27, 2013, Montauk NY
This photo is in the process of blowing up on Facebook, and its success tends to support ideas I have about how small actors can best use the internet to promote their endeavors.
I have not formed these ideas up into a cogent essay (that’s something I seem to do best in the morning over coffee, and this is being composed in the late afternoon over a post-boat work beer.)
But I take the enthusiasm with which this photo is being received as an indication that Leaguesters might also enjoy it, though maybe not quite as much as Facebook. There are elements in this photo, thoughtfully presented, that speak strong to people’s emotional relationship with place; a zig against the geography defying/destroying aspect of networked communication and society.
More about that later. For now, yes, this is what it looks like where I live. Not every night, but often.
I need a vacation.
Do League FPers get a discount?Report
Yes.Report
Okay, time to start saving pennies.Report
Fort Pond Bay needs to be renamed. Is it a fort, a pond, or a bay? It’s like “House Sandwich Potato”, a juxtaposition of words that just don’t make sense once you stare at them.
Anyway, is that a photo of sunrise or sunset? I ask because it could connote something like a Maxwell House commercial, along with sizzling baon, or it could be an end-of-the-day cold-beer moment.Report
When Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders returned from Cuba they were quarantined in Montauk. Rough Riders cemetery is just up the road from our house.
The encampment overlooks a freshwater pond, which was unimaginatively named Fort Pond. The pond is separated from a bay by a dune. The bay is unimaginatively named Fort Pond Bay. The water is unusually deep close to shore, deep enough for ships, and it was used as a naval base in WWII. The road along the bay is unimaginatively named Navy Road.
Duryea’s is located along the southeast shore of Fort Pond Bay. It’s the very last of what used to be Montauk’s harbor. Fishingrala, where the Pelican sailed out on that fateful day in 1951 used to dock here.
Being the southeast corner, the view of the beach is towards the west and Northwest, which makes this a sunset photo. 🙂Report
You inspired me to go look the place up on Google Earth. I’d thought Montauk looked south, into the open ocean. But it looks like when you sail out on Mon Tiki you’re going in to Block Island Sound. I guess that doesn’t make much difference, really.
Do you/would you sail to Block Island? How long would such a sail take on a typical day? I have friends who vacation there from time to time. Maybe they’d enjoy a day on the most awesomest catamaran around.Report
On a falling tide and with a good southwest breeze, it could be less than two hours; adverse condition of wind and tide would make it twice that.
For overnight trips, the boat comfortable, but spare. My recomendation would a sailing/bed and breakfast combo trip. Block Island is famous for its pleasant bicycling, and deservingly so. the entire island can be toured on a two-wheeler, and there’s just enough up and down to keep it interesting.
Montauk is not quite an island. We have water on three sides, and fortunately our harbor faces the sound. Even in the worse weather it remains passible.Report