Mark Alan Lovewell
The Island Food Pantry unfortunately broke another new record last week. In a span of three days, the pantry gave food to 184 Vineyarders. Of the three days, Monday, March 1 was the largest, with 74 recipients.
Though the snow is gone for now, and the coldest days could be past, “this is the tightest squeeze of the year,” said Armen Hanjian, who heads the nonprofit organziation that provides free food for the Island’s indigent. Work and finer weather have yet to arrive.
Another piece of what probably was a large wooden sailing ship has been uncovered in the wash at Wasque.
Last week, The Trustees of Reservations staff and onlookers discovered a large piece of wood. Now there is a second, washing up nearer to the Wasque parking lot than the first.
Many speculate that both are remains of the 300-foot, six-masted schooner Mertie B. Crowley that sank there 100 years ago.
The remnants of a shipwreck turned up on South Beach near Wasque last weekend, following a series of winter storms that have pounded and eaten away the south-facing shoreline of the Vineyard in recent weeks.
The large piece of what appears to be the hull of a ship was spotted about 100 yards east of the Norton Point Beach opening by Skip Bettencourt, who saw and photographed it. The ship remnant is about 35 feet long and four feet wide.
A state legislator’s effort to make striped bass a recreational fish only is dead for now. The state’s Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture has sent the proposal back for further study.
House Bill 796, filed by Falmouth representative Matthew C. Patrick, would have closed striped bass fishing to all but recreational fishermen. The bill was filed a year ago.
The crowd at Che’s Lounge sang along Saturday night, as brothers Dave and Rob Myers brought a cornucopia of music and nostalgia to the underground coffee shop in the alley off Main street in Vineyard Haven.
Many of the Island’s seasoned musicians showed up at Che’s; for them, it was a step back to the 1990s and a time when the Island was home to a number of vibrant live bands that played regularly enough that audiences became fans, buying locally-produced albums and memorizing lyrics.
On March 25, 1990, the call came over the marine radio channel 16. “This is the fishing vessel Sol e Mar,” said a frantic male voice. “We’re sinking. We need help now!” Then the line was cut and there was only static.
Coast Guard radio monitors on the Vineyard and Nantucket tried to raise the caller without success. A short time later another distress call came in, and this time caller was laughing.
Thinking now that the call was a hoax, the Coast Guard ended the matter.