The old Lagoon Pond drawbridge had a good run, but after seventy-five years it was more than a little cantankerous.
By Geoff Currier
Captain: John Thayer Home Port: Lagoon Pond, Martha’s Vineyard Marina The Name: Kittiwake III. “I do not change the names of boats.” The Boat: Twenty-six-foot bass boat originally built of cedar on oak by Erford Burt at Burt’s Boatyard in 1952. The boatyard is now Martha’s Vineyard Marina, on the Lagoon [formerly Maciel Marine].
By Ivy Ashe
Fifty years ago, Anne Hale helped found the Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary on the shores of Sengekontacket Pond in Edgartown. Twenty-six years ago she published Moraine to Marsh, a slender, spiral-bound volume that became a treasured go-to guide to the flora and fauna of the Vineyard.
Lungs tight from kicking up sawdust on a newly cleared trail, I searched my backpack for my inhaler. Weariness was written on my friends’ faces too. A dusty, panting dog lay in front of us, his head turning slowly to drink from a bowl of water. We had been hiking for sixteen miles – a journey that began halfway across the Island at Katama Point Preserve.
By Alison L. Mead
When I walked the Caroline Tuthill Preserve earlier this year, what I noticed first was the aroma of the pitch pine forest, a smell that brought me back to my childhood when I used to visit my aunt and uncle who had a home very close to this sanctuary in Edgartown. The trails are narrow with soft sand, and are mostly covered by a blanket of pine needles,all of which makes for a pleasant floor to walk on.
By Albert O. Fischer
Last summer, signs on Vineyard beaches warned swimmers about Portuguese man-of-wars, the brightly colored siphonophores that deliver a painful sting. And anyone who has spent much time in the water in the summer is probably familiar with the big, pink jellyfish and the small harmless moon jellies of August. But there is a new gelatinous menace lurking in Vineyard ponds, largely unknown and barely visible.
By Sara Brown
When I took up saltwater fly-fishing in the late 1970s, I was blessed to have some wonderful mentors on the Vineyard. Legends such as Nelson Bryant, Arthur Sylvia, and Bruce Pratt were my teachers and encouraged me to learn all that I could about this newfound passion. Thus I jumped at an opportunity to travel to Florida in 1978 to attend a fly-fishing clinic run by Lefty Kreh.
By Kib Bramhall
Captain: Lynne Fraker Home Port: Lake Tashmoo The Name: Ena.“She’s named after my grandmother.” The Boat: Thirty-four-foot Malabar Senior made of mahogany over oak, built by theAlden Design Office in 1957.
By Ivy Ashe
I first met Albert back in the eighties. My then-future wife rented his house in Edgartown one summer and I used to bump into him from time to time. Albert was a little rough around the edges and a bit of a free thinker, but basically a straight-up guy.
By Geoff Currier
I first explored Menemsha Hills more than fifty years ago, when the trails we followed were mostly made by cattle and deer. In the early 1940s, my father, with the aid of friends, had stacked a pile of boulders on the summit of Prospect Hill. His goal was to make the top of the pile roughly three feet higher than the 311-foot Peaked Hill, which is the Island’s highest point.
By Albert O. Fischer
Leo Cooper of Stamford, Connecticut, invented the Goo-Goo Eyes plug in the late 1950s to bewitch big striped bass. It worked. On the night of June 16, 1967, Charlie Cinto caught the Massachusetts state record seventy-three-pound striped bass while trolling a blue and white Goo-Goo Eyes Big Daddy at Cuttyhunk with Captain Frank Sabatowski.
By Kib Bramhall
Since ancient times, maritime signal flags have been hoisted to transmit information between ships at sea.
