The annual Chappy Community Center Open House and Crafts Sale will take place on Saturday, Nov. 26 from 1 to 3 p.m. Chappy artisans will be displaying their handiwork. If you wish to show and sell your crafts call Lynn at 508-627-8222. The new 2017 calendars will be for sale. This is the 10th calendar produced by the CCC. Each month displays a winning photo taken on Chappy. Print the order form from the CCC website to get one mailed to you.

If you will be escaping from the mainland to spend time on Chappy perhaps you will take a minute to look through your collection of DVDs and give the ones you won’t be watching again to the CCC’s borrowing collection.

The CCC sailing program will need a head instructor and an assistant for next summer. Contact Martha Weston at 914-907-8920 or email marweston@att.net.

The next household hazardous waste collection is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 19 at the Edgartown transfer station from 9 a.m. to noon. There is no collection on Chappy for this one. You’ll have to get your stuff up there on your own. Motor oil, oil-based paints, stains, thinners and other hazardous waste are accepted. Last time we collected at the CCC and I drove it all over at once. I learned first hand that there are several items that are not accepted at the collection. Batteries, for instance, of any kind or size are not accepted. I took the car batteries to NAPA and I still have a half-bucket of flashlight batteries to recycle somehow. Radio Shack used to take them but it’s closed.

They don’t want latex paint either. It’s not really hazardous. Dump it out on a sheet of plastic, let it dry and then toss it in the regular trash. Products containing mercury are collected free of charge at the Edgartown facility during their business hours. This includes watch batteries, hearing aid batteries, thermometers, barometers, fluorescent bulbs and neon bulbs. Get rid of all that stuff now and you won’t have to make it one of your New Year’s resolutions.

The maintenance and repairs of the On Time 2 have been blessed by fair weather. Last week the guys finished taking things apart and have started reassembling. This is their chance to prepare the ferryboat for two years of service. It’s all about dependability. After years of experience with keeping these wooden boats running, Erik and George have become experts at finding and fixing the little problems that will become big problems before the next haul-out.

This year the keel of the On Time 2 needed replacing. It’s a piece of fir eight inches wide, six inches thick and 34 feet long bolted to the lowest part of the hull. It has been exposed to saltwater and wood-eating critters for nearly 40 years and has done its duty. The Coast Guard appreciates that we replace components “in kind.” Finding a timber that long to replace it is not easy these days. We found a chunk of fir half the length needed that could be sliced lengthwise and spliced end to end. The Coast Guard gave us the specifications for making an approved splice and we had former Chappaquiddicker Martha Flanders’s son Myles Thurlow perform the joining of the two pieces. You have to look really hard to see where one piece ends and the other begins. Myles repaired the Norton family flagpole next to the whale’s tail years ago with the same method and it has stood the test of time and high winds. When we saw the new keel timber we all agreed that it’s a darn shame that it will be painted blue and hidden away beneath the boat.

Most of the essential workings of the ferryboats are invisible to passengers. The propulsion system has evolved over the years to become very dependable. Jerry Grant and Roy Hayes both applied great ingenuity in making improvements to the ferries as well as the loading ramps. We are very cautious about making improvements but have continued the tradition of previous operators in striving for no breakdowns. Redundancy in parts and systems isn’t always possible so we just have to keep a close eye on things and fix them before they break. We don’t like surprises.

Daylight Saving Time ends Sunday morning. Set your clocks back an hour before going to bed. Remember to replace your smoke and carbon monoxide detector batteries. We finally get back that hour we lost last spring!

Send chappy news to peter@chappyferry.net.