They are among the fastest sailors in the world and they’ve been having a ball over the past two weeks on Vineyard waters. Eleven world-class kitesurfers are participating in the first North American Speed Sailing Invitational, racing across the Island coastal ponds at speeds faster than most cars travel on Vineyard roads. Yesterday they raced across Sengekontacket at high tide under dark skies, with large rollers coming onto the Joseph Sylvia Beach and wind coming from the north-northeast at well over 25 knots.

Archery hunting season began on Monday, Oct. 17 and continues through Saturday, Nov. 26. Hunting for deer is allowed from a half hour before sunrise to a half hour after sunset. There is no hunting on Sundays. Hunters must have a license and in most cases permission from property owners.

In the last weeks of the Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby, Steve Purcell got phone calls from around the Vineyard — and around the country. “They asked me, where was I?” Mr. Purcell said.

Surrounded by friends and fans, Daniel A. Waters — poet and musician, among his many avocations — on Tuesday accepted this year’s Creative Living Award from the Permanent Endowment for Martha’s Vineyard with characteristic humility.

“I feel so lucky to have come to live in a place where a community comes out to honor somebody just for doing what they love,” Mr. Waters told a packed audience at the Grange Hall.

And honor him they did.

A self-described “eel slinger” who had won the derby twice before and an avid angler from Carver were the grand winners in this year’s 66th annual Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby which came to a close last weekend.

More than 100 fishermen received awards at a joyfully raucous ceremony Sunday night at Nectar’s. But it was Stephen C. Morris and Richard A. Penney who took home the two top prizes.

The Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) has agreed to lease its shellfish hatchery on the shore of Menemsha Pond to the Martha’s Vineyard/Dukes County Fishermen’s Association for $100 to raise winter flounder. The partnership is part of a federally funded two-year $308,000 National Sea Grant project to find ways to restore one of the most troubled fish resources in Southern New England.