When Todd and Kara Alexander left for a month-long vacation to Sri
Lanka a week before Christmas, the Oak Bluffs couple was looking forward
to relaxing in the warm sun and white sand beaches of Arugam Bay.

Mrs. Alexander is in the early stages of pregnancy, and the thought
of a beach resort they had read about in the travel guide sounded like
an ideal tonic.

More Students, Higher Scores: High School Cracks SAT Exam

By IAN FEIN

Efforts to improve SAT scores at the Martha's Vineyard
Regional High School are apparently paying off.

For the second consecutive year the graduating class of seniors
posted the school's best average scores on both the verbal and
math sections of the key college entrance exam. The class of 2004 also
had the highest percentage of Vineyard students to ever take the test
- with 152 of 181 graduates, or 84 per cent, giving up a Saturday
morning to put their No. 2 pencils to work.

Christmas came three days early for the family of U.S. Army Sgt.
Randy Dull.

Early Wednesday evening, as the sun set and lit the sky the color of
salmon, Sergeant Dull -  who was wounded in Iraq by a roadside
bomb two months ago - arrived at the Martha's Vineyard
Airport to a hero's welcome.

The Christmas tree in the corner of the room may not be the tallest,
grandest or most elaborate, but for Melissa Peters and her daughter,
Ashley, the five-foot pine is perfect. With its twinkling lights and
gleaming ornaments, the tree symbolizes more than just the coming of the
holidays; it also marks a new era of Christmas at the Peters's
house.

Rather, make that the Peters's home.

Hy-Line Pitches Fast Ferry, Year-Round Service to Link Oak Bluffs
and Hyannis

By JAMES KINSELLA
Gazette Senior Writer

In a move that would tie Martha's Vineyard even more closely
to the mainland, Hy-Line Cruises wants to launch year-round fast ferry
service between Hyannis and Oak Bluffs by next May.

The high-speed ferry operation proposed by the Hyannis-based company
would become the second such service started within a year between the
Vineyard and the mainland.

Join Hands: Message of Unity Heartens Island Over Christmas

By JOHN SCHULE JR.

The moods of the Christmas season are many and wondrous. They speak
of joy and of hope, of laughter and of love, of warmth and of peace on
earth, good will to all people. These moods, and the other emotions of
Christmas days, are familiar to many, each mood beautifully expressed
and each one touched with a special magic of the season.

Boatline Welcomes General Manager

Governors Set Wayne Lamson's Salary and Pay Tribute to Kathryn
Roessel in Monthly SSA Meeting

By JAMES KINSELLA

For the Steamship Authority, the gathering last Friday in a spartan
meeting room at the MBL Club in Woods Hole was one of hellos and
goodbyes.

The boat line welcomed longtime employee Wayne Lamson as its
permanent general manager and greeted Marc Hanover, the Oak Bluffs
resident taking his seat for the first time as the Vineyard
representative to the board of governors.

There are the reverberating smacks of the basketballs bouncing off
the wooden floors, the squeaks of rubber soles starting and stopping in
tandem, and the clanks and clatters of metal rims jarred to life by a
volley of shots.

The sounds emanating from the Tisbury School gymnasium on a recent
Monday night are a strong indication that the Martha's Vineyard
Youth Basketball league is holding court.

Top federal environmental agencies found fundamental flaws in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers review of the controversial Cape Wind project, the Gazette has learned.

Responding to an early version of the Army Corps draft environmental impact statement, the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Mineral Management Service all questioned the objectivity of the Army Corps analysis.

Valuations Go Up in All Towns; Edgartown to Adjust for Flaws

By IAN FEIN

A strong real estate market sent property values across the Vineyard
skyrocketing this year, as four Island towns saw total valuations rise
by more than 25 per cent.

Tisbury assessments jumped 38 per cent from the last fiscal year,
from $1.7 billion to $2.3 billion; Aquinnah is up 35 per cent, from $450
million to $610 million; West Tisbury is up 29 per cent, from $2 billion
to $2.6 billion; and Edgartown is up 25 per cent, from $4.3 billion to
$5.4 billion.