Vineyard local restaurants began serving locally harvested blue mussels in July and the prospects for the future look even better. Alec Gale of the Menemsha Fish House said he was pleased with the results. The last of the locally harvested blue mussels were shipped this week but there may be more.

Reverend Arlene Bodge of Chilmark Community Church opened the start of the summer boating season with the annual blessing of the fleet ceremony on

The meteor shower Geminids peaked last night, although there may be a chance to see a few stragglers over the weekend.

When Scott DiBiaso and his crew sailed the 65-foot schooner Juno out of Vineyard Haven harbor on Wednesday, Nov. 14, they had a single reef on the mainsail along with a fore staysail. Even with a conservative amount of sail exposed to the cold wind, the 25 knots of northeast breeze pushed the vessel from West Chop, down Vineyard Sound toward Aquinnah at a fast 12 to 13 knots. They were helped along by a three-knot current. It was cold and unlike summer sailing.

On Tuesday morning a thin crescent moon appears low in the southeastern sky before sunrise near the bright planet Saturn.

Saturn, the ringed planet, resides in the zodiacal constellation Virgo, where it has been for more than two years. It usually takes Saturn two years to move from one zodiacal constellation into the next. The moon takes two days to move through one constellation.

On Wednesday morning the moon will have advanced farther eastward and will appear in the zodiacal constellation Libra.

It seemed like the whole town of Aquinnah showed up Sunday afternoon to honor Walter Delaney for his years of service as fire chief and more.

The town hall meeting room, the same place where Mr. Delaney, who is 81, presided for so many years as moderator over town meetings, was decked out for the party. Tables usually set up for town business were cloaked in tablecloths and covered with dishes of homemade food.

“It was overwhelming,” Mr. Delaney said of the gathering.