For years, the Possible Dreams auction has been uniting the Vineyard. Year-round residents and summer visitors, dreamers and donors, come together for a night of philanthropy and possibility.

John W. Mayhew would have liked the flyover at his graveside service on Saturday afternoon. Preceding a brief service that included military honors, a large flock of Canada geese flew over in chevron.

There were gasps as all looked overhead and watched the event. The timing, in unison with the salute, was perhaps too precise, too deliberate to be an accident.

Governor John de Jongh is no stranger to island-hopping. After all, he’s in charge of a territory that includes three main islands that make up the U.S. Virgin Islands — St. Croix, St. Thomas and St. John. But last weekend he traveled over 1,000 miles to visit this Island, and attend an event to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the University of the Virgin Islands.

In the mid 1970s, shortly after the all-volunteer crew had begun work on the exterior walls encircling the patch of ice that would become the Martha’s Vineyard Arena, a gale swept through the Island and knocked down nearly all the cement blocks, destroying the steady progress.

A call went out. More volunteers rallied to the cause. The walls were restored and work continued.

Three beeps from the race committee horn and the group of windsurfers competing in the U.S. Junior Windsurfing Championship pull up their sails, get settled on their boards and glide to the starting line.

Two beeps and it’s two minutes to race time at the Vineyard Haven Yacht Club.

One beep and 13-year-old Geronimo Nores from Miami, FL,, along with the rest of the fleet, is at starting line.

The starting horn blows. The sailors head east towards the first marked buoy, pumping their legs up and down on their boards.