Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

I would like to convey thanks to some members of your community. I reside in Edinburgh, Scotland and in June 2013 had the chance to visit Martha’s Vineyard for the first time on the 20th anniversary of my wife’s first visit (she has been visiting on and off for 20 years now).

Myself and my wife only had 24 hours to spare during a trip to Boston before onward travel to Canada and this happened to coincide with the tail end of a tropical storm and it rained consistently for most of the 24 hours that we were there. Not perturbed we decided to visit Lake Tashmoo, which holds the most fondest of her memories and a place which she wanted me to see before we left, but we were ill prepared for the intensity of the rain and after visiting the beach at the end of Herring Creek Road we found ourselves soaked to the skin facing a long walk back to Tisbury to get a bus to the youth hostel, our preferred stop for the night. Not expecting to see a soul due to the weather, it was a surprise to see a lone fisherman, who quickly offered to drive us back to Tisbury to prevent us getting any wetter and packed up his equipment and off we went to catch our bus. After arriving at the youth hostel we found that during the trip most of our spare clothes had succumbed to the rain and we were without any dry clothes for the next day. Not being put out, the staff offered to dry our clothes and also supplied my wife with spare until this was done, how happy this made us as we had a chat over a cup of English tea, which she also supplied.

I can only say that during our visit we only found kindness and people willing to help to ensure that our brief visit was a memorable occasion which is rare these days. And I can only say thanks to Hubbard for rescuing some wet Brits off the beach and taking the time to drive us back to Tisbury, the staff of the youth hostel for ensuring we had dry clothes for the next day and a cup of tea and the staff of the Black Dog (shop and restaurant) for looking after all our food and shopping needs and also taking the time to give us a brief history of the restaurant and shop.

Thank you for your kindness and even though the rain was constant, the Island holds a beauty that can never be changed by weather.

Andrew Bates

Edinburgh, Scotland