JOHN S. ALLEY

508-693-2950

(alleys@vineyard.net)

Sprinkle a little salt over your left shoulder before reading today’s column as it is Friday the 13th.

It was a toasty warm weekend with the temperature reaching almost 90 degrees. Lots of folks went to the beaches and held backyard barbecues. It is getting busier by the day and if you drove down to Vineyard Haven last weekend you experienced your first traffic jam of the season.

Tomorrow is Flag Day and next Friday summer begins.

West Tisbury selectmen want to clarify whether the town can restrict private companies taking water from public land.

Selectmen this week approved a request by conservation commission chairman Prudy Burt to ask town counsel Ronald H. Rappaport to review the town’s authority to regulate or prohibit water taking.

Ms. Burt said she had seen a dramatic increase in landscaping companies filling water tank trucks from the Mill Brook on Scotchman’s Bridge Lane.

JANE N. SLATER

508-645-3378

(slaterjn@comcast.net)

The news is that Chilmark feels the heat. This week wasn’t June in January, it was more like August in June. Our weather was very hot and humid for several days . . . not much like our usual June but very much like those few days in August when we always assure our visitors that “this is very unusual for us.”

JUNE MANNING

508-645-2574

(lthslnks@gis.net)

The Arabella has set sail from the Island for the last time.

The 50-foot catamaran owned by Hugh Taylor of Aquinnah was sold last week to Daytona Beach Catamaran and will soon begin sailing from Ponce de Leon inlet in Florida.

For the past 15 years the Arabella has been a familiar summer presence here with day cruises to Cuttyhunk and sunset cruises from Menemsha.

“I sold her with some regret but I’ve been unhappy with the care and attention I’ve been able to give her for the past few years,” Mr. Taylor said this week.

Geology and Scenery

Longtime Chilmark summer resident Conrad Neumann will present a free program titled Geology and Scenery on Land and Sea at the Chilmark Public Library on Thursday, June 19, from 5 to 6 p.m.

Mr. Neumann, who lives in Chapel Hill, N.C. in the winter, taught geology and oceanography at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill for many years.

For details, call 508-645-3360.

The Taste of the Vineyard benefit stroll is Thursday night; catch the Friday Gazette for a special history stroll with the Martha’s Vineyard Preservation Trust.

If hurling a flat cap skyward is the final act of a student, many members of the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School class of 2008 were especially quick to graduate this Sunday. Even in the shade of the Oak Bluffs Tabernacle, dozens of gowned students had taken their hats in hand early, to flap against the sweltering air on an unseasonably hot day. The moment that principal Margaret (Peg) Regan signaled the end of the ceremony, all 198 were in the air.

From under a soaring tent strewn with dyed silk banners, lyrics sailed out across the sun-cooked grounds of the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School on Saturday, as one of its six graduates of 2008, Nora Joan Winsryg-Karasik, sang her commencement speech a cappella with a nod to Bob Dylan: “Well the trail is rough and bumpy, and the road is kinda steep, but the good road is a-waiting, and boys it ain’t far off.

“Trails of trouble, roads to battle, paths of victory we shall walk.”

The removal of plants and trees from conservation land owned by the Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation for use in a large private landscaping job began some two years ago, according to documents detailing the extent of the damage done by the operation.