Surfcasters were the stars for this 33rd year of the Martha's Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby. The stripers were huge, and there were more big ones than anyone expected. In the pages of the daily derby records are entered 20 striped bass weighing more than 40 pounds each, and winning daily prizes. Seven of those fish weighed more than 50 pounds. In most past derbys, a 50-pound bass would be an easy winner. This year, a 52-pounder didn't finish in the top three. It is a derby of striper surprises.
Something happened to Carly Simon the moment she stepped onstage at the Chilmark concert. The performance she worried so about was riveting; the crowds she expected to be rowdy welcomed her warmly.
Backstage, she had mingled among the carefully screened (and tagged) collection of people, accepting hugs of encouragement, words of support.
“There was so much paranoia before the event, about what might happen, what it might turn into that I was really quite scared,” she recalled some days later.