Leather, rain reign supreme on Fire Island

Hundreds of leathermen and a cold rain were among the things that greeted Fire Islanders last weekend.

With one week to go before the all important Memorial Day weekend, people up and down the beach were busy planting flowers, wrapping up home renovations and stocking shelves ahead of the holiday. A persistent fog blanketed Fire Island for most of Saturday. And a cold rain fell for several hours yesterday morning, but this weather did not deter the hundreds of leathermen who descended upon the Ice Palace in Cherry Grove for the 14th annual Mr. Fire Island Leather contest.

The first edition of the Fire Island News comes out on Thursday, and so I won't divulge any of our upcoming stories. That said, here is a picture of the Great South Bay from the ferry to Ocean Beach on late Friday afternoon.