Sports
The deadline for entry into this year’s 35th annual George Moffett Memorial Race is approaching. Friday, Aug. 31, is the last day for entry forms to be mailed to the Holmes Hole Sailing Association.
While the race is still more than a week away, organizers of the event need to do their handicap work in preparation for the race on Saturday, Sept. 8. Last year there were 40 boats participating in the race.
The Guinness Book of World Records has a category called biggest zit, and one for the most people blowing their nose at the same time. But while a category exists for largest temporary maze, and largest permanent maze, there is no category for a portable maze — yet. That day may come, though, if you ask Sean O’Malley, Ryan O’Malley, Jared Koster or Perry Bliss. These enterprising 12 year-olds make up the board of the Giant Maze Project, and they’ve got a maze they think would easily dominate the portable maze category for a long time.
On Tuesday afternoon, Vineyard Field was quiet; a breeze tinged with fall kicked up some dust next to the batting cages. The bounce houses were deflated, the food stands empty and there were just two people on the field, tossing a ball back and forth.
Martha’s Vineyard Sharks general manager Jerry Murphy loaded a tub of purple-and-black gear into his car before a meeting with some of this summer’s host families. He’d just put in another order for merchandise; the summer supply was sold out and still in demand.
When the Sharks come for the summer, they need a place to stay.
“Host families are our backbone,” general manager Jerry Murphy said. “Without them, we don’t have a team.”
Nelson C. Smith, 87, has had plenty of water pass under his keel. And observed many sharks off his bow. The retired Edgartown charter fishing captain, who has had many jobs on the waterfront, predicts an increase in shark sightings in Vineyard waters. As long as the seal population continues to rise around the Vineyard, Mr. Smith said he believes the seal’s worse predator, the great white shark, will also increase, as it seems to have done around Nantucket and certain areas of Cape Cod, according to recent reports. “More seals are showing up at Muskeget Channel.
The volume of yoga practitioners on Martha’s Vineyard is almost overwhelming, yoga teacher Mollie Doyle said this week. “We have an amazing yoga community here . . . there are nine or 10 classes practicing on a Tuesday morning, and they are all full,” she said.
“It’s kind of a yoga mecca.”
And next week, the yoga-friendly Island will be the site of even more asanas and oms than normal at the third annual Martha’s Vineyard Yoga Festival.