The next Chappy potluck dinner will be hosted by Margaret and Jim Mullen on Wednesday, Feb. 17 from 6 to 8 p.m.

The Chappy Stitchers will meet for the first time this Friday at the Chappy Community Center from 10 to noon. All are invited. Bring your needlecraft of choice. A perfect opportunity to get out of the house, get some sewing done, and catch up on what your neighbors are up to.

For the next 10 weeks I will be sounding like a broken record with constant reminders about the ferry slip repairs scheduled for the week of school vacation in April. During that week the ferry will only carry passengers. The loading ramp on the Chappy side must be removed so that the bulkheads beneath it can be replaced. With the ramp removed vehicles won’t be able to access the ferry. The ramp will be removed first thing in the morning on Sunday, April 17 and will be back in place by Sunday, April 24 at 6 p.m.

We are removing the old wooden bulkheads, which are disintegrating, and replacing them with new materials, which are not subject to rot. The new bulkheads are composed of PVC, which is the same material that household drainpipes are made of, and fiberglass, which is the same material that many boats are made of. These materials come in the form of half-inch thick , 20-some-feet long panels called “sheet piles” which are driven vertically into the ground. The panels have a zigzag cross-section, which gives them stiffness. When a series of sheet piles are installed side by side they form a very rigid wall. Each sheet pile is firmly interlocked with its neighbor. The corners and intersections of walls have special inserts to keep the sand from leaking through. The old wooden walls were difficult to seal at the corners and junctions that allowed the sand fill behind them to wash out, causing cave-ins. These new materials are far superior to wood.

To make sure the work can proceed without interruption we have duplicates of all machinery required for the job. We have a good stockpile of all of the materials needed. Some phases of the project require divers working under water.

I repeat the following information for the benefit of those who may have missed last week’s edition. As usual if you have an emergency that requires an ambulance, the hospital emergency room, the police or the fire department call 911. They will contact everyone needed including the ferry captain. If you have an older cell phone you may get more quickly connected to the Dukes County Communications Center by dialing 508-693-1212.

You can stay up to date on the drivability of Norton Point by calling 508-627-8390 or by checking the TTOR Facebook page which is entitled The Trustees-Martha’s Vineyard.

To get up to date information about ferry issues relating to stormy weather or the repair project check our website, Facebook page, ferry hotline at 508-627-6965 or office phone message at 508-627-9427. You can sign up to get automatic text notifications by texting the word “chappy” to 99000.

Last week I suggested that if you are coming from off-island during the school vacation week and want to have your off-island car on Chappy and don’t want to drive the beach make sure to get over here by Saturday night on the 16th of April and get a reservation to go home a week later on Sunday night on the 8:30 or 9:30 p.m. big ferry. I had the date wrong for that first Saturday. You still have 10 weeks to get a reservation on the big ferry.

The Monday northeaster kept the Chappy ferry from running the entire day. We managed to get a standby ambulance and fire department pickup truck over first thing in the morning before the tide got too high. Late in the evening the winds had died just enough for us to safely bring over the town sander and plow to put the finishing touches on Tom Osborn’s tireless endeavors. It was a relief to have a daytime storm for once. It’s so much easier to deal with snow and wind when you can see. Plus you get better photos. At the ferry we switched boats so the better-suited On Time II was on hand for emergencies. Once we had the hatches battened down there was nothing left to do but hunker down and wait it out.

Send Chappy news to peter@chappyferry.net.