Mark Alan Lovewell
It should be bonito season. The water is warm, well into the 70s. There are plenty of sand eels swimming near the shoreline and there are plenty of terns overhead feeding. The bonito should be here. But they mostly aren’t.
Barefoot, a 39-foot Grand Banks Eastbay cruiser, may have hit a rock when it sank late Saturday afternoon outside of Edgartown harbor. The captain, Dwight Gesswein, of Fairfield, Conn., and two passengers were rescued by a passing powerboat.
A beautiful weekend for sailing with brisk winds and fair weather was marred briefly on Sunday morning when the captain of a 12-metre sailboat was injured. Dennis Williams, the captain of the Victory 83, was transported to the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital for treatment after he was hit in the head by the boom of another sailboat in a congested moment at the leeward mark at the start of a race.
The 12-metre regatta is hosted by the Edgartown Yacht Club.
It may be a cliche on the radio, but around the piano at a Circuit avenue barroom sing-along on Monday night, the audience sang the old Billy Joel lyrics with nuance and exuberance: “Sing us a song, you’re the piano man, sing us a song tonight.” David Crohan was playing his Kurzweil electric piano.
What could be better? Well, soonafter Mr. Crohan was accompanied by his old friends Hugh Taylor and Merrily Fenner and more.
Tiny oysters paint the bottom of Tisbury and Edgartown Great Ponds. There has been a huge set of oysters this summer and the future looks bright for a bumper crop to be ready for harvest in three years. And all this is welcome news to a community of shellfish biologists, shellfish constables and water quality experts who have worked for years trying to restore what was historically a prosperous and healthy fishery.
By MARK ALAN LOVEWELL
Some of the prettiest and fastest sailboats in the region will be in Edgartown this weekend for the 17th annual Edgartown Yacht Club 12-metre regatta. At least seven are expected from Newport.
At the foot of Main street in Edgartown two 80-foot masts tower over the yacht club clubhouse.