What follows are 10 of the stories that engaged Gazette readers in print and online over the past year.

1. A series of unfortunate events, including repeated ferry breakdowns, bedeviled the Steamship Authority in the spring, drawing criticism from Islanders. Under public pressure, the board of governors commissioned an independent review of the boat line.

2. As the year came to a close, marine consultants hired to review the Steamship Authority released a detailed report describing an organization that has failed to keep up with modern business practices. The board of governors pledged to hold public meetings on the findings in the new year.

Summer crowds and traffic congestion at the Martha’s Vineyard Airport were in the news. — Timothy Johnson

3. Barefoot photographer Peter Simon, whose iconic images captured both the counterculture and the coming of age of the Vineyard, and Ed Jerome, longtime leader of the fishing derby, were among those who died in 2018, both just 71. The Island also mourned the loss of other beloved community members, including Carol Craven, Lucy Hackney, Trina Kingsbury, Mark London, Greg Mayhew, Ben Moore and Edo Potter.

4. Heightened concern about tick-borne illnesses followed reports of the rare death of a Martha’s Vineyard seasonal resident who contracted tularemia and the release of new maps showing the spread of lone star ticks on the Island.

5. New owners took over ongoing businesses, including the popular Oak Bluffs bakery Back Door Donuts and two historic lodging places, the Harbor View Hotel in Edgartown and the Lambert’s Cove Inn in West Tisbury.

6. The Island was pummeled in March by a fierce northeast storm that brought hurricane-force wind and driving rain, causing power outages, uprooting trees and eroding shorelines.

7. Two transportation hubs were in the news in 2018. In Woods Hole, the Steamship Authority demolished the old terminal, even as plans for the new one riled residents on both sides of water. The Martha’s Vineyard Airport applied for federal funds for design of a major terminal expansion project.

8. Two proposed public buildings, a new Tisbury elementary school and a new Oak Bluffs town hall, were both nixed by voters at the ballot box after gaining support on town meeting floors.

9. Two iconic tracts of real estate went on the market. The majority of the north shore estate once owned by longtime Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham was listed for $39.5 million, and Beetlebung Farm in the heart of Chilmark was put up for sale. At year end, the latter was sold for $2.4 million, to an owner who reportedly plans to keep it as a farm.

10. Lola’s Southern Seafood restaurant, center of the social scene for Oak Bluffs’ African American community, ended a long run of making the good times roll.