At the moment, there is no flowing Katama breach. There are plenty of low spots along Norton Point where the surf easily washes over at high tide.

This week’s northeaster didn’t blow very hard so it did very little damage to an already-weakened barrier beach. Every high tide that passes without a high wind deposits several inches of sand further up on the beach, building it up ever-so-slightly higher.

The forces of nature are interesting in the balance between erosion and accretion. For months on end, nearly-undetectable progress is made in rebuilding what then gets swept away in a mere few hours.

Chappaquiddickers have decades of experience with the life cycle of Chappy being accessible by land and then being isolated again from the Vineyard. Sometimes there is alarming erosion at Wasque, but there is still plenty of high ground between the surf and the dense neighborhood along Wasque avenue.

Can’t say the same for South Beach between the left and right forks. The landward march of that shoreline has come to the point that crossing fingers and pushing the sand back off of the pavement is clearly no longer a viable plan. Atlantic Drive regularly gets a taste of Atlantic Ocean salt water.

It will be very interesting to see how we as a community respond to the need to protect structures on the inland side of the herring creek. Remember those videos of houses falling into the sea on Nantucket?

The least pleasant weather for a ferry captain to work in is cold rain. When you are hurriedly rolling your window back up after paying your fare, remember that the ferry captain is out there for six hours.

The only good aspect of the snowstorm that turned to rain on Monday was that all of the snow melted. The sudden drop in temperature overnight froze car doors shut and made a few areas of invisible ice on porches. The continued subfreezing temperatures predicted for this week will at least keep the muddy roads frozen for a while.

In an effort to get folks out of the house for the evening, the Chappy Community Center will be hosting a wine night on Wednesday, Jan. 31 at 6 p.m. Bring your favorite bottle of wine, an appetizer and good conversation.