In a dramatic, all-hands-on-deck effort, the wooden schooner Tangier was hauled off a sandbar in Vineyard Haven harbor Tuesday morning after she went aground in gale-force winds during the weekend blizzard that lashed the Island.

With gas pumps once again locked and in violation of environmental regulations, R.M. Packer Co. and the town of Edgartown have come to a short-term agreement.

Two waterfront Vineyard Haven companies owned by Ralph M. Packer have been ordered by a federal judge to pay $1.3 million in fines.

Troubles in the Middle East and a sour national economy are not far from the minds of Vineyarders trying to make it through this cold winter. Home heating oil and propane prices went through the roof this week.

Yesterday the retail price for home heating oil was $4.199 a gallon, up 23 cents from Tuesday when the price was $3.969.