Time flies at Beaufort Water Festival's closing air show

Hundreds packed downtown Beaufort on Sunday afternoon to cap off the last day of the Beaufort Water Festival with an air show that included stunts, skydiving and a special presentation by the U.S. Coast Guard.

The high-flying show and perfectly sunny afternoon nicely tied up the 60th annual celebration that seems to have flown by over the past two weeks.

The festivities began with the annual blessing of the fleet and parade of boats, but the action started a few hours later with a coordinated skydive into the heart of Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park by the instructors at Carolina Skydiving.

Then, amid a chorus of "oohs" and "ahs," pilots Greg Connell and Buck Roethman tore through the skies above the Beaufort River in their specialized Pitts Model 12 acrobatic planes.

They twisted and turned and flipped and fell all over the sky as young boys and girls traced their paths with their fingers from their mothers' laps or atop their fathers' shoulders.

After the acrobatics concluded and the roar of the engines sank into the distance, the U.S. Coast Guard's H-65 Dolphin helicopter swooped in over the river with its rotors' signature "whine."

The team, based out of Savannah, showed off the helicopter's precise moves and demonstrated several mock rescues for the rapt crowd -- all while hovering less than 50 feet off the river's surface.

Another round of skydiving and more tandem tricks from Connell and Roethman formally ended the water festival as its myriad of vendors and visitors polished off ice cream treats or sodas and packed up the park.

This year's schedule change to end with the air show helped round out a successful week of festival events, festival commodore Bill Damude said.

"Moving the air show to Sunday afternoon was a big success, it was a true 10th day of the festival this year," Damude said.

"The 60th was a great one, and I think everyone had fun," he said with a smile. "And that's all you can ask."

Follow reporter Zach Murdock on Twitter at twitter.com/IPBG_Zach and on Facebook at facebook.com/IPBGZach.

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This story was originally published July 26, 2015 at 6:53 PM with the headline "Time flies at Beaufort Water Festival's closing air show ."