Paddleboarder Rescued After Drifting Miles from Meschutt

HAMPTON BAYS, NY — It was a happy ending for a woman blown miles off course by winds while paddleboarding at Meschutt Beach Thursday, police said.

According to Southampton Town police, a call came in at 4 p.m. from Suffolk County Parks Police reporting that a beachgoer had been paddleboarding and may have been in distress.

A young man reported that he had been watching his friend paddleboard at Meschutt Beach when the wind picked up and pulled her out of sight, police said.

The woman, Christina Pimienta, was reported to have been wearing a lifejacket while paddleboarding and traveling east, police said.

The wind was around 15 knots from the west, and seas were reportedly two to three feet, police said.

Southampton Town Police bay constables were dispatched and conducted a search of the area, locating Pimienta minutes later about three miles east of Meschutt Beach and one mile out to sea, police said.

She was found in the water, clinging to the paddleboard, police said.

Pimienta told police that vessels passed had her but didn't see her because she was floating just above the water, and she was afraid no one was going to find her, authorities said.

Pimienta was transported by bay constables back to Meschutt and reunited with her family, police said.

Police said the positive outcome could be credited directly to the fact that the woman was wearing a life jacket, had someone aware and watching from shore, and due to the rapid and appropriate response from the lifeguards on duty, the Parks Police and the Southampton Town Police Bay Constable Unit.