Martha’s Vineyard Braces and Adapts in the Summer of COVID-19

Anthony Foster and Newton Wait, co-owners of Vineyard Carribbean Cuisine, wait for customers at their Oak Bluffs restaurant. (Eve Zuckoff/CAI)

In a minivan packed past the point of seeing out the rear window, Dottie and Bob Engler waited in Woods Hole to drive onto a ferry destined for Martha’s Vineyard.

“We’re hoping, because it’s full of fresh air and openness, that it’ll be a great respite for us this summer,” Dottie said.

On Memorial Day Weekend, the Newton couple drove through Friday traffic to open up their West Tisbury house for the season. But already they were thinking about how different this summer will be.

“It’s a little sad to think we won’t say goodnight to the sun at Menemsha with everybody because that’s always such a treat,” she said. “But you know, you make do. … It doesn’t look like it’s going to be a real open summer, though.”

In towns throughout New England that rely on tourism, the coronavirus has upended summer traditions and raised questions and doubts about how June-through-August will look and feel like for visitors and residents. Already, the summer of 2020 is off to a slow start, with just 65 percent of the normal ferry traffic to the island on Memorial Day weekend.

Read the rest of this story at CAI’s website.