It is still T-shirt weather but the long pants have come out. I am still holding out on the flip flops and won’t give in for at least another month. I have been watching the ponds and they still need a lot more water before fall is over.

It was not as ambitious as Ferdinand Magellan’s expedition to find a route to the Spice Islands in 1522, and certainly not as dangerous. But Dana Gaines of Edgartown and his two friends, John Karoff from Milton and Tucker Lindquist from Ipswich can nevertheless be credited with plenty of pluck and explorers’ ambition for completing a circumnavigation of the Vineyard in kayaks in a single day last Saturday.

With the southwestern Wasque shoreline eroding at a rapid rate that is being termed “unprecedented, significant and unanticipated,” the Edgartown conservation commission this week granted emergency certification allowing the owners of a Chappaquiddick home to take immediate steps to protect their home from the encroaching sea.

Emily Fischer and Douglas Brush of West Tisbury announce the birth of a son, Leon Fischer Brush, born on Sept. 22, 2012 at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. Leon weighed 7 pounds, 14 ounces at birth. Leon joins big brother Milo.

The football team’s second home game of the season is tonight at 6:30 p.m. The Vineyarders play Randolph.

Home field action continues over the weekend, with the still-undefeated field hockey team playing Pembroke at 12:45 p.m. on Saturday and girls’ soccer taking on Bishop Feehan under the lights at 6 p.m.

Well, September has slipped away rapidly and we are now in the fall season. The weekend weather was delightful, but Sunday was noticeably cooler, lending a fall-like atmosphere to the air.

Farm Neck was the name most often used for Oak Bluffs by 1642 when Joseph Daggett was first granted land for his farm. In 1646, Thomas Mayhew called our part of Martha’s Vineyard the Easternmost Chop of Holmes Hole, the word chop being a variation of chap, the jaw of a vise or a clamp.

Welcome to those veterans participating in the fourth annual American Heroes Saltwater Challenge. I had the great fortune of meeting a few of their family members while on tour with Lori Keefe and her young son Grady while they were in Aquinnah. They were thrilled to have gone out on the Alabama on Tuesday. Lori and I will make that challenge to go on the Alabama next year! It is also encouraging to learn that three veterans are in the lead in the derby!