The old wooden sailboat up on blocks inside the shed at the Martha's Vineyard Historical Society in Edgartown doesn't look like much.

The white lapstrake boat, less than 20 feet in length, has not been in the water since it was brought to the society in December 1936 from Menemsha Creek. The paint has come off in many places. There is little chance she will ever float again.

Linda Despres, the chief scientist aboard the Albatross IV, has a haunting memory of visiting Georges Bank as a 23-year-old scientist.

"I have this picture in my mind of Georges Bank at night and seeing the lights of over 50 ships going back and forth across the horizon," she says.

Capt. Gregory Mayhew, a Vineyard native and lifelong resident of Chilmark, runs the 75-foot steel dragger Unicorn out of Menemsha. This summer, for the first time in more than 20 years, he went sea scalloping. The reason, he said, is economics.

If you need to talk to Steve Morris this weekend, you probably won't find him working behind the counter at his store, Dick's Bait and Tackle, in Oak Bluffs.

If you are looking to chew the fat with Patrick Jenkinson at Up-Island Automotive in West Tisbury, you are also probably going to be out of luck.

And if your water heater breaks and you need Steve Amaral to fix it, you better call another plumber.

Even on an Island that knows a little something about shark hysteria, the upcoming Boston Big Game Fishing Club Monster Shark tournament is a frenzied event.

On Wednesday morning, under a warm sun and blue sky, David and Karen Berube were out on Cape Pogue Pond, at it again.