MARGARET KNIGHT

508-627-8894

(margaret02539@yahoo.com)

The full moon put on a good show last weekend. As I rode the ferry late Friday afternoon, the perfectly round moon was rising over Cape Pogue while the sun set in all its glory across the harbor. Jim Walsh posted a picture of the moon hovering near the lighthouse that night on Facebook, and said many Chappaquiddickers responded. Early Sunday morning when I headed to town, the pale moon was on its way down, and loomed directly above Edgartown, dwarfing the moon-faced clock in the Whaling Church tower. Capt. Bob said his sunrise picture taken from the ferry on the Edgartown side that morning was perfectly framed by the overhead ramp workings of the Chappy side. Often he has to maneuver the ferry midchannel to get his shot framed.

The third annual dinner in honor of the ferry captains and crew last Wednesday at the Chappy Community Center attracted about a hundred grateful Chappaquiddickers. The big room was decorated with wreaths and greens, had a fire blazing, and there was lots of delicious food and neighborly conviviality. Mary Spencer handed out door prizes of CCC T-shirts, calendars, and some ferry-related DVDs, including Aquabiking, which features (a younger) Peter Wells riding a bike off the Chappy ferry ramp at top speed. Thanks to all those who did the work of making the dinner happen.

The next event at the community center will be Christmas Eve dinner served at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 24. Everyone is welcome, including your guests. This special annual event was begun many years ago, before the community center was even built, when Joe and Mary Cressy cooked the whole meal and invited all of Chappaquiddick to their house. There is still always lots of food and good cheer. Coordinator Abigail Chandler and board members are looking for volunteers to help set up and clean up, and also to bring vegetables or desserts. You can e-mail Abigail at chappycc@verizon.net or call the CCC at 508-627-8222, or call Mary Spencer at 508-627-4011 if you can help.

Last weekend’s Christmas in Edgartown was a great success. Lots of people came down for the festivities, of which there were more than ever. Carol Jones and Janey Jones were in residence at Wasque Farm. On Friday evening, I was at the Harbor View Hotel for the lighthouse lighting. Having never been to Times Square on New Year’s Eve, it seemed to me like a mini-version of the ball dropping — lots of people standing around drinking and snacking on cookies provided by the hotel, a group countdown and then the lights on the Edgartown Lighthouse popped on. I’m not saying it was totally anticlimactic, but getting together with lots of people seemed more the point of it than the lights coming on. Sidney participated in the parade on Saturday, sitting in the bucket of the Farm Institute tractor holding a chicken. He said he’d never heard the word “chicken” said so many times.

Other Christmas events continue around the Island, including Robert Kirn’s 10th annual Winter Concert: Songs of Peace, Hope, and Light on Sunday, Dec. 18 at 5 p.m. at the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center. Marsha Winsryg is holding the annual sale to support her work with disabled children and their families in Africa. This Saturday you can find her in her temporary shop at the bottom of Main street in Edgartown, where the unusual gifts include rag rugs made by a cooperative of divorced women in Zanzibar, shopping bags and purses crocheted from recycled plastic bags, silver jewelry sold to help a small Tuareg group build a town and many beautiful baskets. Zambezi dolls, jewelry, carvings and fabrics are on sale at her house on New Lane in West Tisbury from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. every Saturday before Christmas. Also this Saturday, the hand bell choir from the West Tisbury church, directed by Marsha, will be playing in front of the Capawock Theatre in Vineyard Haven from noon to 1 p.m..

A week or so ago Lindsay Allison came down to Chappy from Cambridge and, as usual, her first stop was Mytoi. At the pond, she saw the answer to the question of what happens to the goldfish over the winter. For 10 minutes she watched an otter fishing. She said, “He even talked to me, sticking his head way out of the water to see where and what I was!” She also saw camellias still in bloom, as well as a few confused rhododendron flowers.

The question of what happened to the CCC crosswalk sign has somewhat more of an answer, too. The sign had been stolen the first day it was put out on the road last summer. A couple of weeks ago, Dick and Judy Dimond were out walking early on the morning that Marvene O’Rourke later went out biking. Dick spotted something off in the underbrush at the curve before the firehouse, and pulled the crosswalk sign out of the bushes. He cleaned it off and left it right next to the road, as it was too heavy to carry anywhere. A short time later, CCC board member Marvene discovered the sign as she rode by on her bike, looking as if it had magically appeared there. She soon had it rescued in her car.

Peter Wells reports that on Monday evening the Edgartown Fire Department came down to the Chappy Ferry for their monthly drill. Two dozen firefighters and two fire trucks participated in overcoming the problems of carrying fully loaded fire trucks to Chappy at low tide. At low tide, the long tail boards and low fuel tanks of the trucks drag when loading or unloading. In the past at low tide, trucks from town had to reduce their weight by dumping out 500 or 750 gallons of water, and then refilling at a Chappy cistern, taking up valuable time. Peter says, “Time really seems to fly when a house or the woods are ablaze.”

The ferry crew had experimented with various methods of increasing the ground clearance of heavy vehicles. Peter says, “You may have noticed the bright red plywood rectangles stored near the ferry. These are one-inch-thick deck boards formerly on the On Time III, cut into pieces two by four feet, and coated with the same nonskid rubber that covers the ferry decks. The bright red is more appropriate for Fire Department activities than the black and gray used on the ferries. These boards can be laid down one on top of the other right at the overlap between the ramp and the ferry deck. When the fire truck drives up onto them, the rear of the truck rises, giving the extra few inches of clearance needed.”

Peter adds, “The most important tool in firefighting is water. Providing an adequate supply of water to a fire on Chappy presents a challenge. The Fire Department has been considering replacing one of the aging Chappy fire trucks with a new 2,000 gallon tanker. When word got out about this idea several of our Chappaquiddickers offered to help fund the purchase. We have a preliminary design and have begun fund-raising informally. Expect to get an e-mail or letter soon from the Fire Department presenting the new tanker, and explaining how you can make a charitable contribution toward its purchase.”