Mark Alan Lovewell
The three-day 85th annual Edgartown Yacht Club regatta got off to a sailor’s start yesterday with a fresh breeze. Under clear blue skies and perfect sailing conditions, more than 150 sailboats competed for prizes in the Edgartown outer harbor.
Today and tomorrow is a continuation of the one-design sailing off the Edgartown lighthouse with boats from as small as the Optimist, an 8-foot sailing dinghy, to as large as the 30-foot Shields sailboat.
Tisbury assistant fire chief Tom Colligan was showering in an outdoor shower on Friday morning at his home in Edgartown when his pager went off.
Prior to that moment, he had plans to spend the day with his cousins and relatives.
Less than a half hour later, he was inside the basement of Cafe Moxie in Vineyard Haven with little or no vision, feeling his way through orange-tinted black smoke.
He was fighting a fire to save a building, but also aware that he and his colleagues were at risk.
The face of Main street in Vineyard Haven has changed more by the act of fire than any street in any other Island town.
Sailing already is getting under way this summer.
The Vineyard Haven Yacht Club is observing its 80th summer. The Edgartown Yacht Club is hosting more summer sailing events than it did a year ago. Sail Martha’s Vineyard is gearing up for its big sailing classic Vineyard Cup in mid-July. The Holmes Hole Sailing Association has launched its Sunday and Thursday races.
Across the Island’s harbors, the boats are here. Plenty more are coming. The talk at yacht clubs is about events, wind, markers, crew and gear.
By MARK ALAN LOVEWELL
The ninth annual fluke derby run by the Veterans of Foreign War Post in Oak Bluffs 9261 may be Saturday, July 12 and Sunday, July 13, just over a week away, but anglers are already out there harvesting the fish. July is fluke season for most anglers.
While there has been plenty of attention in the last month on striped bass and bluefish swimming around the Island, the fluke (summer flounder) fishery is alive and well in Menemsha and in parts east and west.
David Stanwood is back in business and invites his old friends and prospective customers to visit his piano shop off Lambert’s Cove Road this Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for a get-reacquainted open house.
Mr. Stanwood, 57, runs Stanwood and Company, a piano restoration, piano tuning and repair operation that has been around for 30 years.