MARGARET KNIGHT
508-627-8894
The On Time III is back on the job, looking all spruced up. She arrived back in her hometown the middle of last week, after spending three months in dry dock covered with a plastic structure at Packer’s in Vineyard Haven, where much was being done to her. Peter says he and Erik will continue with small repairs and maintenance, but the big work is finished, some of it perhaps forever. The deck is now free of bolt holes, so no more water should be getting in to rot things. The III has a new diesel engine, and a new hydraulic system that will use vegetable-based oil. Peter also used more ecologically safe anti-fouling paint on the bottom, as well as other environmentally friendly materials.
The first time I drove onto her, the deck seemed to go on forever. The boat seemed twice as long as the II, but Peter says it’s just nine feet longer than the smaller one. He calculated this to translate to an extra 800 feet per shift that the captains are walking. It does take longer for the captains to walk to the back of the ferry to put up the ramp, but the extra time is more than made up for by the fact that three full-sized pickup trucks fit just fine now. This means the extra pressure on the captains of trying to figure out whether the boat can fit the next three vehicles in line is mostly gone, which must be a relief. The III has always been easier to maneuver, too.
Peter says that the temporary signs on North Water street for the extended waiting line have come down, and the highway department will be peeling up the temporary yellow stripes. He says, “Someone was very creative with the stick-on dashes that outlined the waiting line. For a short time they were arranged in a very nice star pattern.”
The sand off Wasque continues to move around. The Edgartown side of Norton Point, that recently reached almost as far as the former large beach parking lot, has shortened up, and now ends with an embryonic-looking, inwardly curved tail, moving the opening back to the west some, below the bluff where the “doughnut” parking lot used to be. The rest of the stretch of the Point is still visible as a sand bar under a line of breaking water. The marsh pond inside Katama Bay that had its channel blocked by sand is now open to the Bay again, with a much changed looking channel, and lots of sand on top of the marsh grass.
Erosion continues at Fisherman’s Leap where the collapsed steps are slowly coming apart. It’s an interesting process to see, but eventually those pressure treated planks will end up in the water or on the beach, and they’ll have lots of nails sticking out of them, maybe just below the level of the sand. We’ll have to get our tetanus shots updated before summer.
I called Edo Potter about an small evergreen tree I’d found when Peter and I were looking around for a possible culvert in the wet area on the sides of Dike Road beyond Hatsy Potter’s driveway. It looked like one of the wild holly trees that are pretty common in the woods, but then I noticed it had smooth leaves that made it look like the ficus tree I’d just given away. Edo and Bob went over to see the tree and identified it as an ilex pedunculosa, or longstalk holly. Edo said Bob has several in his arboretum — maybe this one escaped from there.
The ilex pedunculosa is one of the most cold-hardy hollies — it grows to zone 5 — and is a native of Japan and China. It reaches 20 or 30 feet tall, and prefers moist, slightly acidic, well-drained soil —– probably exactly the reason it picked that spot to grow. It’s also moderately salt tolerant. It must be a very happy tree, and it certainly looked it. It’s on the left side of the road heading to East Beach, around where the first road posts are.
The selectmen’s committee that has been meeting to talk about cell service on Chappy met last Friday to consider possible sites for a DAS hub station (“hotel”). They decided to recommend that the town wait until it has an actual proposal for a particular site before looking to change the property’s use. Roger Becker says, “Having an actual plan and specifications for what the DAS ‘hotel’ might actually be will make it easier to sell the community and nervous abutters on the idea. Hopefully the developer will be able to defend his choice of sites. The committee is committed to a DAS system rather than a cell tower.”
Roger also says, “The Request for Proposals (RFP) will hopefully go out within two weeks. It will ask for a DAS developer to design the system to use the silo at the Katama Farm or an Edgartown site for the ‘hotel,’ only putting it on Chappy as a last resort. The DAS system will require wiring the island with fiber optic cable (expensive) and we are told that the hotel does not have to be close in distance to the ‘node’ (antenna poles along the road). Because of the low quality of the present Verizon ground lines to Chappy, which are maxed out, whatever cell system we get will require upgrading of what goes across the harbor.”
Edgartown Library continues its series of critically acclaimed international films on their big screen downstairs. Films show on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. through March 6.
The MV Hebrew Center opens its 2012 Arts Festival on Feb. 4, at 7:30 p.m. with a showing of The Chosen with producer/speaker Jonathan Bernstein.
Through March 16, the Farm Institute offers a chance to come and help with chores or work with the animals. Little Farmers (ages 5 to 7) meet on Wednesdays, 3:30 to 5 p.m. Farmers in Training (Ages 10+) meet on Fridays from 3:30 to 5 p.m., and includes oxen training with Sidney. Call 508-627-7007, ext. 103 to register. Sunday Projects are from 1 to 2 p.m., including giving animals new bedding, moving and stacking hay, mucking stalls, or moving livestock fencing. Children 10+ may be dropped off without a parent, but adults are encouraged to participate.
I had the flu and was in bed for a few days, sleeping, not eating, and when I got up the world looked new. It didn’t hurt that the sun was shining and the air warm, but it felt as if the earth was reinventing itself once again. The day was still, and standing outside in the sunshine, I could hear the waves pounding the beach at Wasque several miles away. The wild birds have been more active, talking, and vying for food at the bird feeder lately when my chickens aren’t occupying it. There is a certain peacefulness outside at this time of year that is totally different from a still day at any other time. These days are the kind that make me happy I live here, and grateful for the winter season.
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