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Columnists

Winter Sun

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Dec 23

Category:

Island Notes

It is, technically, the last day of fall, sunnier and calmer than forecast. On the other side of the year we have an abundance, nay, an embarrassment, of light, come so early and staying so late I wonder how anyone can function more to the north than we. Now, the length of day in Anchorage is three...
From the Lighthouse

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Dec 16

Category:

Columnists, Island Notes

It has been too long since I have been to the lighthouse, the grand gothic structure sitting on the bluff high above the ocean. It is never far removed from my life; it is visible from my house, a silhouette on the crest of the land in day, a faint green blink at night. The structure, all two...
The Third Place

By

J.V. Houlihan, Jr.

Fri, Dec 16

Category:

Columnists, The Ferry Dock Scribbler

Over in Newport one night I was sitting in a comfy chair in Starbucks, reading and sipping, ahem, a libation. It was a standard issue large black coffee, just like the gods made it—why trifle with success. Several years ago, this was a nightly drill when I stayed on my sailboat while working for...
Processing and preparing squid

By

Capt. Hank Hewitt

Fri, Dec 9

Category:

Fishing Report

In last week’s article, I wrote a primer on squid fishing. This week we look at processing it, and a fun recipe to prepare. First and foremost, if you have never worked with fresh squid, they have the potential to make a mess if their ink sack is disturbed or ruptured, which is almost unavoidable...
Captain of her own ship

By

J.V. Houlihan Jr.

Fri, Dec 9

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

Chevron’s first woman captain hails from Narragansett “I’m hoping to get to our mooring in El Segundo, California by Tuesday. I’ll call Monday if the weather lays down,” said Capt. Lisa Chaplin-Dixon. “The cell phone service isn’t good at that anchorage, I’ll let you know when we get...
On a distant hill

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Dec 9

Category:

Island Notes

It rained through the night, battering the east windows, and the wind howled its winter banshee wail. It sounded cold so it felt cold, but did not make me think beyond reaching in the dark for the comforter that has been waiting, patiently, at the foot of my bed. There was an odd noise, continuing...
The Johnny Appleseed of sailing

By

J.V. Houlihan Jr.

Fri, Dec 2

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

“Some people try to give me money, but I won’t take it,” says Bill Dunleavy, “my advertising leaflet says 'free' sailing lessons, so it’s free.” This quote from Dunleavey says much about the man. First of all, it’s crystal clear that he is generous. Secondly, he obviously has a passion for sailing...
Displaced Autumn

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Dec 2

Category:

Island Notes

In the damp, sun-deprived days of late fall and early winter — and in winter's cold — I sometimes walk into my kitchen solely to feel the sun pouring through the south facing windows. Of late, at a certain time of day, that short trip involves stepping over a big golden dog who lies in the pool of...
Postcards from the edge

By

Martha Ball

Wed, Nov 23

Category:

Island Notes

For the holidays, postcard images from half a century ago, showing Block Island, still the sleepy little town time almost forgot, when a few cars constituted a busy summer day and views were wide and open. The same things were advertised as are today, “...
Thankful to be hopeful

By

J.V. Houlihan Jr.

Wed, Nov 23

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

"But as a people we probably harbor seeds of goodness that have lain for a long time waiting to sprout when the conditions are right. Man’s curiosity, his relentlessness, his inventiveness, his ingenuity have led him into great trouble. We can only hope that these same traits will enable him to...
Notes on sailing, redux

By

J.V. Houlihan Jr.

Fri, Nov 18

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

There’s a saying that goes, “when two boats are moving in the same direction, they’re racing.” There is some truth to this, which probably has its roots based on man’s desire to be number one, to be the winner, and get all the swag: dinners, trophies, and sponsors — people like to be near power. We...
Surrounded by the Sea

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Nov 18

Category:

Island Notes

We live surrounded by the sea, we hear the sound of it in the dark and feel its dampness on the raw east wind. We smell it when it is filled with sea weed and roiled by a storm passing off to the east, we taste it on our skin when we walk too close to its salty mist. We see more or less of it...
Schoolies

By

Sol Schwartz

Sat, Nov 12

Category:

Fishing Report

There are a lot of bass out there, folks. The gradual drop in water temperatures has slowed the anticipated arrival of big fish, but there are a lot of schoolies all around the island right now. You should definitely get out there and catch some. Squid fishing has been unbelievable lately...
Bruuuuuuce!

By

J.V. Houlihan Jr.

Fri, Nov 11

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

“I saw this guy last night at the Bottom Line in New York City, and he was powerful ; never saw anything like him.” These words were spoken by a drummer I once met at Crescent Beach. It was August in ’75. I had a few hours of slack time while working on the Quonset, so...
Such great hope

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Nov 11

Category:

Island Notes

The morning dawned bright after a long dark night, the sky and sea spread with the same rose gold, a vibrant and hopeful color reflected in the flat calm surface of the big pond behind my house, emerged in early November from its cover of summer greenery. I wondered at it for a bit, even thought of...
Bells

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Nov 4

Category:

Island Notes

W e are in that time in the fall when first morning sun is still too far to the east to spill through the south-facing kitchen windows and provide that flood of sunlight that is the saving grace of those cold winter days when it is warmer when I come downstairs than it is in early November. By noon...
Fall fishing is great!

By

Sol Schwartz

Fri, Oct 28

Category:

Fishing Report

What a beautiful week for fishing! Perfect fall weather has given anglers plenty of opportunities to go out for the big one. Typically, this is the time of year when we start to see huge numbers of squid showing up in the harbors. There are also large amounts of other bait around the island keeping...
117 and counting

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Oct 28

Category:

Island Notes

T oday, it is likely more people know — or have some vague familiarity with — the quote “justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream” from the extraordinary speech delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Washington DC on a hot summer day more than 50 years ago, than from...
Notes on Sailing

By

J. V. Houlihan, Jr.

Fri, Oct 21

Category:

Columnists, The Ferry Dock Scribbler

When a sailboat is moving through the water with a perfectly balanced helm, and all of the parts of the elements of the boat’s design are doing what they are supposed to be doing there is a feeling of balance — it’s a powerful and visceral thing to experience. Synergy by definition: “Is the...
October's Offering

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Oct 21

Category:

Columnists, Island Notes

It is one of those October days that is the reminder that comes every year and every year comes as a blessing. These are days — I am sure I have written other Octobers — of miracle and wonder. By week's end we will have slipped into the darkening world of sunrises after 7 a.m. and sunsets before 6...
Still Time

By

Capt. Chris Willi and Capt. Hank Hewitt

Sat, Oct 15

Category:

Fishing Report

The report from the beach is still decent for striped bass, with a good numbers of schoolies all around the island and in the harbors. Most fish have been taken on topwater and with metal-lipped Danny-style plugs. Unfortunately, there are a good number of seals coming in, which doesn’t help fishing...
Diver down

By

J.V. Houlihan Jr.

Fri, Oct 14

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

“I had a mask on me when I was three years old,” says Dave Robinson. “I love being under water.” Robinson is a scientist at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography. Many years ago, while a student at Narragansett High School, he and a friend became certified scuba divers and...
Storms of Autumn

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Oct 14

Category:

Island Notes

Three years ago, Autumn was a fluffy puppy and I was acutely attuned to the weather, or more precisely, to the possibility of rain that had not fallen for nearly a month. It stayed warm and dry, open door weather deep into October, even as the inevitable darkness strengthened and with it that sense...
Fallen Butterfly

By

Martha Ball

Sun, Oct 9

Category:

Island Notes

F or a moment it seemed as though Autumn, my sweet golden dog, had finally come to the realization that the vacuum cleaner is not a beast with its own mind and energies, one bound and determined to attack her. At some point in her growing and shedding youth, I merely pushed it to the side of the...
Striped bass prizes

By

Sol Schwartz

Sat, Oct 8

Category:

Fishing Report

Water temperatures around the island are finally starting to drop. After this last week’s northeast blow, along with cooler nights, we are definitely set for fall fishing. I’ve noticed the squid in both harbors are a little bit bigger lately, as well as an increased amount of small baitfish such as...
Fall run has begun

By

Capt. Chris Willi and Capt. Hank Hewitt

Sat, Oct 1

Category:

Fishing Report

Now that we are into October, we are happy to report there is a solid presence of a wide variety of fish in the waters around Block Island. Starting with the beach and surf, stripers and blues are busting on large surface plugs during the light change at sunrise and sunset on both the east side and...
Block Island Beach Cleanup: There is always more to do

By

Kim Gaffett

Sat, Sep 24

Category:

Ocean Views

International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) is a 30-year project of the Ocean Conservancy that collects information about ocean and shoreline debris from around the world. In 2015, about 18 million pounds of trash was collected by 800,000 volunteers around the globe. The Ocean Conservancy uses the...
Fish at the Channel? Albie there!

By

Sol Schwartz

Fri, Sep 23

Category:

Fishing Report

S eptember fishing on Block Island can be so rewarding and diverse. The cool nights and warm days make fishing for all different species much better. During the day, if you are anywhere near the Great Salt Pond, you’ll see boaters and surf casters alike chasing the bonito and false albacore (albies...
Autumn Gold

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Sep 23

Category:

Island Notes

One poor pair of socks wasn’t quite dry when I brought laundry in some time last week. “Tomorrow,” I thought, knowing I’d likely forget. They are there yet, two socks made of material that cannot fade in the sun or be harmed by rounds of heavy rain. My yard is a jungle. At first I try to tell...
Reflections on a delinquent past

By

Gloria S. Redlich

Sat, Sep 17

Category:

Treehouse Chronicles

Though most of my life has been lived on the straight and narrow, the time has come for me to confess that I have had something of a checkered past. (“And it all has to do with books,” He-Who-shares-everything-with-me blurts out.) As most of my friends know, I have something of a book obsession,...
The little tunny

By

Capt. Chris Willi

Fri, Sep 16

Category:

Fishing Report

To kick off this week’s report, I’m pleased to report the arrival of false albacore ( Euthynnus alletteratus ) or little tunny. The bonito caught on the leading edge of Tropical Storm Hermine have seemed to move out, being replaced by false albacore showing from the Coast Guard Channel and...
Softer Season

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Sep 16

Category:

Island Notes

Fifteen years it has been since the towers fell. The sky is as beautiful as it was that terrible week, the blue it so often is in September. It is more the norm than not, cyclical, as is so much in nature, this azure that often returns, a repeat of what we could only call “insidious,” as it was cut...
Hermine doesn't stop the fish

By

Sol Schwartz

Fri, Sep 9

Category:

Fishing Report

So a hurricane came through and showed its face... big deal! The fish are still swimming the Block Island waters. Being that it was a northeast wind that we had, it will be interesting to see what it does for the fishing these coming weeks. Since our water temps are still up and there is lots of...
So long, and thanks for all the fish

By

Zoe Estrin-Grele

Fri, Sep 9

Category:

Loose ends

I'm not great at saying goodbye. I never have been. I don't get emotional enough when it happens, so I sort of shut down and distance myself from the experience. I once had to break up with a boy because of "geographical differences" and the best goodbye I could manage when I moved was, "See you...
Storm Fatigue

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Sep 9

Category:

Island Notes

Suddenly, after days of ever-changing tropical storm advisories and screaming red banners on the weather sites, shifting from one to three to one to four days in length, even the fear-mongering ratings seekers have surrendered. All warnings and watches have been cancelled, the only tag remaining a...
Varieties of fish all over

By

Capt. Chris Willi and Capt. Hank Hewitt

Sat, Sep 3

Category:

Fishing Report

This week’s shore fishing report shows a slow pack of stripers coming up on the east side sand beaches. At the beginning of this week, however, an offshore swell had big waves pounding the east and south sides of the island. Keeper bass have been taken at night on the east beaches just outside the...
Standby

By

J. V. Houlihan, Jr

Fri, Sep 2

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

“Morning, I’d like to go on standby, what are my chances?” says the smiling customer. If you’re the guy or gal asking that question — in the summertime — you are speaking to Dave Martin, Bill Shepard, or me. It’s a loaded question filled with hope, anticipation, and veiled defeat. It’s a question...
Hat on a Hydrant

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Sep 2

Category:

Island Notes

There was a gentle breeze this morning, the east wind that blows harsh and heavy in the winter bringing a welcome cooling change in late August. The sun has come around, I realized a few days ago when my house was unseasonably warm, more than it had been, when I came home as afternoon wound to...
Monster blues

By

Sol Schwartz

Sat, Aug 27

Category:

Fishing Report

Late summer fishing on Block Island is a time for changes. Striped bass fishing begins its lull before the fall and we start looking out for other species to show up. When our waters reach their warmest, the bigger stripers typically stay in deeper waters until the temperature drops near the shore...
Tipping

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Aug 26

Category:

Island Notes

Yesterday, Monday, was not a good day on “my” corner in town. I went out the door of the gallery I tend just after noon, absolutely sure of the time as I was running close to the edge of being two hours parked in the little lot below the church, the green spot named not for the great-great...
Last week, this week

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Aug 19

Category:

Island Notes

It is August hot on Block Island, the weather cycle everyone seems to forget exists. I forgot, until several years ago, going back through August columns, I found a recurring thread of hot, muggy, foggy, damp, doors swollen by the moisture in the air, coming back from the morning beach dripping wet...
No bones about it

By

Capt. Chris Willi

Fri, Aug 19

Category:

Fishing Report

Starting off this week’s fishing report: the stripers are seen daily by bathers from Mansion Beach all the way into town, as far south as the Beachead Restaurant. Catching them during the day is quite tricky, but the best bet is with a fly rod and crab patterns — fished behind the breaking waves...
Royal Weed

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Aug 12

Category:

Island Notes

Today the sun shone and people thronged to the beach. There are but a few days a year traffic is so crazily busy on the Mansion Road, and the upper and lower lots are almost impassable for all the cars parked in whatever way they can fit. This was one of those days, I realized when part way to Corn...
The search for little tuna has begun

By

Sol Schwartz

Fri, Aug 12

Category:

Fishing Report

In the next few weeks, Block Island will see its highest water temperatures for the whole season. The warm water is definitely primed for baitfish, which in turn keeps the big fish around. Already, for the beginning of August, we are seeing great catches from both boat and shore. One thing to keep...
Fishing Report: It’s All Happening

By

Capt. Chris Willi and Capt. Hank

Fri, Aug 5

Category:

Fishing Report

The shore report this week stays strong with many of the surfcasters reporting stripers being caught around the island from dawn to dusk. The North Light, Scotch to Mansion Beach, Southeast Light, and Black Rock have all been producing fish. The Coast Guard Station still has large scup and small...
Day Is Done

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Aug 5

Category:

News, Island Notes

There is but a band of pink above a line of white clouds in the blue sky to the east, a remnant of the sunset, but it is after eight and it is August. The big high speed flies by, seeming to move faster than in full light, as though there is nothing left for it to do but zip back to the mainland...
Peaks and valleys

By

Sol Schwartz

Sat, Jul 30

Category:

Fishing Report

Mid-summer is when we see fishing around Block Island go into a peak and valley pattern. Certain days it’s red hot and everyone is catching, other days very few fish are caught. The upside is that more bait seem to be around from last year, so the fish are here. Shore fishing has been very good...
Summer Weekend

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Jul 29

Category:

Island Notes

The week preceding the fourth Saturday of July, the long-standing date of the Harbor Church Fair and Auction, is always one of conflicting schedules and heated humidity and time racing even faster than its usual summer pace. Friday night I was hot and tired and, knowing I had to be up especially...
Docks Redux, ramping up for the future

By

J.V. Houlihan, Jr.

Fri, Jul 29

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

After the cables and hook were attached to the boom, the crane lifted the gray slab of diamond plate steel. Then, the usual suspects, Josh Linda, John Tally, Gary Champlin, and Joel and Liam Kenneway guided the mass to the place where they could begin working. After the crane left, out came the...
Walk the Walls

Wed, Jul 27

Category:

Columnists

Come experience the topography of the agricultural fields that almost completely covered Block Island from the late 1600’s to the early 20th century. Meet at the corner of West Side Road and Old Mill Road. Co-sponsored by Block Island Conservancy and The Nature Conservancy.

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