There's nothing like a field trip

....especially when it's a Marine Field Trip

 

40 years ago when I first entered high school, there was a kid named Marty Van Lith in some of my classes. Marty had come to Floyd a year or so earlier , I know that because he's in the 8th grade Washington Trip photo taken in May of 1960.

I say that simply because all through high school we probably only spoke to each other once in a blue moon... and it would probably be heady stuff like 'Hey can I borrow a sheet of paper? or ...ya got an extra pencil?'.....and 'thanks man I owe ya'..... Not that there was any trouble between us...it's just the way it was. I never even knew he lived in the same town I did. I thought he lived in Shirley. Shirley was the town most of the newer kids in school seemed to move to. Marty was pretty quiet in school and most of the time I wasn't even there if he wanted to talk... I was out on one of my well documented "personal" field trips.

Well that all changed a few months back when he sent me an e mail regarding this website. He had been a fan of it for sometime and decided to let me know....Then one reply led to another and next thing I know we are finding out how much we have in common. Like growing up with boats (He actually lived on Unkechogue Creek and today he still has a creek (Beaver Dam) in his Brookhaven hamlet back yard) Marty is a real history buff too. Turns out he and another Floyd-ite Anita Cohen have been married for many years. Anita who was two years ahead of us has been helping me identify a lot of kids in the early Floyd photos.

So when he heard I was coming up for a little R&R ....Recreational Research we got together for a few outings. Besides accompanying me to Southampton to visit Dodi & Claire Knapp, we spent a few hours out on his boat taking a look at the creeks and coves along the shoreline that we probably were in a 1000 times 40 years ago. It was the first time I've been back on that bay since I quit being a Bayman in 1975. In spite of the strong wind that kept us close to the shore, it was an unforgettable trip that literally knocked my hat in the creek!

Here's A Look ....

 

Here we are heading south down Beaver Dam Creek ,(# 1 on the map)

Bellport Bay is just ahead around that bend. See that "lighthouse" above the trees on the right?

 

 

 

If you gotta live on the water a little nautical style never hurts

 

And speaking of living on the water ..... our first pause was just a short hop across the bay

to the eastern shore of the mouth of Carmen's River

 

The William Tangier Smith's Manor Of St. George #2 on map

Not wanting to draw any fire from the 1812 Cannon battery on the shore, we pressed on to Smith's Point and ports eastward

 

 

Next Stop ... Sheep's Pen Creek

Section 5 Mastic Beach

# 3 on map

 

 

In 1961 I spent the bulk of my summer days hanging around that building, which was Nick Chapman's Out Board Shop, trying to get him to fix our motor. When the 20hp Merc he traded Butchie & Me for would run we were out on the bay in our 9 foot utility racer the Little Chief. Captain Andy's Fishing Station was located here too. Today it's a restaurant called the Violet Cove.

 

Fred Schait's Boathouse has been a Sheeps Pen Fixture since the 1930's

It's come along way baby!

It too was originally a Fishing Station & Rowboat Rental shack.

MB Directory 1937

 

 

The creek takes a sharp left bend the empties into the Section 5 Marina

 

 

NEXT PATTERSQUASH CREEK HERE WE COME