Good news! The Falmouth to Edgartown ferry has started its Friday-Saturday-Sunday service. The critical sailing times for most folks would be Fridays, the last trip leaves Falmouth at 6:30 p.m., and Sundays, the last trip leaves Edgartown at 5:15 p.m.

Even better news! Daily service begins Wednesday June 25 and runs through Labor Day. On weekdays and July 4, the last trip leaves Falmouth at 4 p.m. On Fridays, the last trip leaves Falmouth at 6:30 p.m., and on Sundays the last trip leaves Edgartown at 6:45 p.m.

It really is the best way to get to Chappy if you don’t need to bring a vehicle. Consider half of the price as a great sight-seeing tour and the other half as saving someone the bother of picking you up in Oak Bluffs or Vineyard Haven. No waiting in the Chappy Ferry line. No riding on a packed bus between Woods Hole and the SSA parking lots. The complete schedule is on the website. Remember to get a reservation and be on time for your return trip. It may be a happy accident for you to miss the last trip out on Sunday, but your host might have a different point of view.

Last Friday, the grammar school students and teachers marched to the sea for annual memorial activities at, fittingly, the Memorial Wharf. I enjoyed watching all of the contributors in the preparations for the event. The police department set out cones and sawhorses at daybreak to keep the lot open. The highway department patched potholes. The town landscapers planted a new batch of flowers at the base of the flagpole. The new harbormaster made sure that there was a rope strung across the face of the wharf to keep school kids from falling overboard. Bright new flags were raised on the wharf flagpole and the Norton mast. The sound guy strung wires and set up a complete audio system. The highway department came back with a truck load of music stands and a drum set. A big yellow school bus arrived with the school band and dozens of instruments.

Eventually a crowd began to gather and the entire grammar school flowed into the wharf parking lot on foot accompanied by the cheerful chatter of school kids who have escaped the classroom. The speeches, recitations, music and singing were heartfelt and moving. But the part that has always been the most significant to me was when the eighth graders tossed flowers into the water in memory of those who have passed on before us. Lilacs are the most plentiful this time of year and so are the traditional flower, but many other bright flowers floated on the harbor too. The current carried the blossoms out into the channel. The ferry boats made wide arcs around them to avoid running through them. Eventually, the tide changed and the wind coaxed the widening flotilla of flora into the harbor.

Then as quickly as the crowd had appeared, it dispersed and it was quiet again on the waterfront as all of the earlier preparations were dismantled.

Gathering together to remember our heritage and those who made it possible is a wonderful tradition.