Mark Alan Lovewell
A charter fishing trip turned exciting Thursday morning when those aboard came within five feet of what they believed to be a surfacing great white shark.
Buddy Vanderhoop, captain of the charter boat Tomahawk III, was taking his charter customers out for a morning of fishing when they came upon the nearly 20-foot shark about a mile offshore, between Aquinnah and Noman’s Land.
Possibly the biggest, and certainly the longest, sailboat races of summer come together this weekend. Tomorrow, 74 sailboats are expected to race around the Island in the Edgartown Yacht Club’s annual Round the Island race. The race — about 52 miles in length — starts in early morning and lasts all day, taking boats clockwise around the Island.
Lost Rockets. A classified advertisement in the Gazette recently described how a group of Cub Scouts had shot off 12-inch rockets and many of the small spacecraft went missing in windy conditions. The advertisement sought help in finding the missing recyclable rockets.
The advertisement may have fallen short of helping the youths get what they wanted (one rocket was recovered as a direct result of the ad), but it did raise the word that Cub Scouts can have a lot of fun on a windy afternoon in Chilmark.
The Martha’s Vineyard Touchdown Club’s popular tempura food booth — a primary fundraiser for the high school’s football and cheerleading programs — will need an unprecedented effort to be ready for this summer’s agricultural fair. The club faces a shortage in funding to rebuild the booth, which was severely damaged in a fire last September. The fair takes place a month from now.
When Vineyard physician Michael E. Jacobs teamed up with his friend, Dr. Eric A. Weiss, to write a book on marine medicine over five years ago, boating got safer for a lot of sailors. Boaters bought it and stowed it away with their box of bandages and antiseptic. It was a great addition to the required first aid kit.
The book enables all who sail or motor in boats to feel as though they have some expertise onboard to deal with medical situations.
The 84-foot fishing boat Kris & Amy grounded two miles east of East Chop on Hedge Fence Shoal on Monday afternoon and required the attention of several salvage firms to free her last night.
Senior Chief Jamey Kinney of Coast Guard Sector Woods Hole said that a call came in from the vessel at 12:55 p.m. that she had run aground in 11 feet of water. Coast Guard Station Woods Hole responded. The vessel, a sea scalloper with a blue hull and white superstructure, remained stuck through the afternoon.