MARGARET KNIGHT
508-627-8894
Chappaquiddick has now entered its yellow period. For the next week or two, every surface exposed to the outdoor air will be covered with pollen. My blue car, which is parked at home under some oaks, is now a yellow car. It finally got warm enough for us to open our back porch for use, which we did this past weekend. Last year I cleaned it a little early because we had a real spring, and then came the pollen. This year I’m not going to bother cleaning it until the yellow period ends.
Big changes are happening to the look of Chappaquiddick Road from the Point to beyond Litchfield Road. Not a bike path – this is more in line with the trend in house removals. This week the off-Island company Hawkeye, LLC has been taking down the electric lines and poles where the electricity was installed underground this past winter. The road looks very different!
The front page photo of last Friday’s Gazette was a great shot by Ray Ewing of Peter Wells with his grinning face framed by the ferry hatch, taken from down below. Tom Dunlop’s accompanying article told of the extensive renovation this past winter of the On Time II and a half, as it’s now called, and Peter’s plans for doing a similar job on the III next winter, plus engine replacements on both boats. He’d also like to buy a travel lift in the next couple of years, to take the boats out on Chappy, saving dry dock costs and maybe even the ferries themselves in a hurricane. Tom Dunlop is writing a book about the Chappy ferry that will be published by Vineyard Stories in 2012.
The ferry is on its full summer schedule now, running from 6:45 a.m. to midnight. It’s nice to see Charlie Ross regularly again; he is back in the captain rotation. New deckhands are at work, including Captain Rick Hamilton’s daughter, Becca, who is getting her captain’s license, and Nathaniel Haynes.
It was a busy weekend on the ferry, and off, and since Peter had scheduled a full crew on Monday, which was quieter, he sent one boat out for man-overboard and anchoring drills. A request from Peter is that people who have removable trailer hitches take them off when they’re not pulling a trailer, so the captains don’t bang their knees on them, and there’s more room for vehicles on board.
The Martha’s Vineyard Arts and Culture Collaborative, Arts Martha’s Vineyard, is inviting anyone in hospitality and visitor services to a free summer preview on Tuesday, June 7 from 2 to 6 p.m. at the Grange Hall in West Tisbury. There will be exhibits by the Island’s arts and cultural institutions, sampling of live performances, raffles and discount coupons, complimentary refreshments, and a one-stop pickup of pamphlets, schedules and flyers. A range of performers, artists, musicians, camps, museums, libraries and educational establishments will be represented. This preview is the result of an initiative by the collaborative formed this past winter. They have a Web site which states that their mission is to increase awareness of the year-round, arts-rich community, stimulate economic development and cultural tourism, increase resources and opportunities for arts and cultural nonprofit organizations, businesses and individuals, and to support arts education in schools and in the community at large.
Tonight at 7 p.m. the Merrimack Valley handbell choir will give a concert at the West Tisbury Congregational Church. Freewill donation, and a potluck supper at 5:30 p.m. before the concert.
Tom Dresser’s new book, The Wampanoag Tribe of Martha’s Vineyard: Colonization to Recognition, has just been published and is available locally. The book is a history of the tribe, with interviews and biographies of key members of the tribe, including mention of the Chappaquiddick Indians as they relate to the rest of the Native American population on Island.
I visited Wasque on a foggy afternoon last weekend. The Trustees of Reservations have done some preparation for summer crowds and, depending on how quickly erosion continues, there is room for parking with a path cut through the brush to a nice beach near by, as well as Norton Point itself. The point on our side continues to shrink, and no vehicles are allowed out there, which makes it quite a peaceful place. The day I was there, at the end of the sandy point the fog almost hid a little band of SUVs across the channel on the Edgartown side, although the shrieks and shouting floated bodilessly through the fog to where I walked with a few oystercatchers and seagulls.
Walking the two sides of that narrow point on the Chappy side provided totally different experiences. On the outer side, the wind blew hard and the surf crashed against the short bluffs. On the Katama Bay side, the breeze was gentle and the waves lapped quietly at the shore. I saw at least 10 mating horseshoe crab couples in the bay. The tide was high, and the females were digging into the sand to lay their eggs, while the males hung off the back of their shells waiting to fertilize the eggs. One lone male was cruising among the couples. He’d bump into the front of a female’s shell, and feel along the side until he reached the back, where he’d give up when he found her otherwise engaged. It’s hard to imagine how life continues itself with such awkward bodies.
Next week will be my last column for now. Brad Woodger will return as our summer (and maybe some of fall) Chappy columnist as of June 17, with all the latest news of Chappaquiddick, as he sees fit to print.
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