They are accidental partners in crime — two theatre teachers, both formally educated in the dramatic arts, who wound up on the Vineyard. Each has long ties to the Island. Kate Murray, who is the daughter of Capt. Everett and the late Virginia Poole, was born here. Donna Swift was a summer kid-turned year-round kid who has a familiar Vineyard story: just one more summer on the Island before a real job in the real world.

By MIKE SECCOMBE

It sometimes seems, when trying to get on or off the Vineyard, that the Steamship Authority ferries are always booked.

But that apparently is not right. There is persistent excess capacity, and boat line senior managers have colored graphs and spreadsheets to prove it.

Today, when the SSA governors convene on Nantucket for their June meeting, they will have those graphs and spreadsheets in front of them as they begin talking about next year’s operating schedule, and possibly even the fall operating schedule.

Trap Championship

On April 27, Bob De Lisle of Edgartown picked up his second club trap championship since 2005 at the Martha’s Vineyard Rod and Club. Participants took aim at two rounds of 25 targets. Tim O’Bryan of Edgartown placed second.

Confronting the Pump

On Thursday, the Vineyard Transit Authority will mark nationwide Dump the Pump Day — an annual occasion that calls on people to use public transportation to save money, conserve gasoline and reduce greenhouse gases — by cutting its already bargain fares in half and holding a party at the youth hostel in West Tisbury.

Swim First, Unpack Later

For some reason, I always remember the last swim of the season. Whether it was on a late fall afternoon in elementary school or as early as an August morning when I would sneak in a quick swim before catching the ferry for the trip back to college, the memory of that last swim would stay with me well into the winter.

In that way the last swim of the season is different from the first. The first, I never seem to remember.

Sometimes referred to as the enigmatic man of American letters, the late William Styron was a longtime fixture on outer Main street in Vineyard Haven where he spent nearly 50 summers. Mr. Styron died in November 2006 and is buried in Vineyard Haven. A collection of 14 personal essays written by him was released in April of this year. Titled Havanas in Camelot, the essays range from a reminiscence of his brief friendship with John F. Kennedy to a meditation on Mark Twain. What follows is the essay Walking With Aquinnah, an account of his daily walks with his dog.

Surfwise is only a surfing film in the same way that its central character Dorian (Doc) Paskowitz is, as he puts it, a “Jewish surfer.”

In fact Mr. Paskowitz is a Stanford-educated doctor who refused to send any of his nine children to school; an individualist who led his children each morning in a rendition of Chairman Mao’s March of the Volunteers; and a professed good husband and good father, who pursued his own dream with his family in tow. He also happens to surf.

A group of touring Tibetan Buddhist monks will perform traditional dance and music, as well as construct an ornate circular mandala made entirely of sand in variously colors – the first time such a Tibetan ritual has taken place on the Vineyard — over the coming week.

A contemporary musical that chronicles the five-year life of a marriage, from meeting to break-up — or from break-up to meeting, depending on how you look at it — opens Thursday for a three-weekend season at Katharine Cornell Theatre on Spring street in Vineyard Haven.

The Last Five Years, by Jason Robert Brown (Parade, Songs for a New World), is an intensely personal look at the relationship between a writer and an actress told from both points of view.

A thin line of chocolate snaked across his plate, capturing his crepe while a dollop of ice cream sat innocently to the side. Michael Torres, of Modesto, Calif., hadn’t touched his dessert yet but already was giving Waterside Market rave reviews. It was his first visit to the new eatery on Main street in Vineyard Haven, he said, and he was impressed with everything from the service to the atmosphere. “We were walking down the street and we saw it and we smelled it and said this is where we want to eat,” he explained.