Bici collected us at about 18.00 and we went for drinks with a selection of 'summer people' about her age. Hosted by Pete and Barbara Puttnam who have been renting somewhere on the island for the past 41 years. The last 25 of which have been in an upstairs apartment overlooking all the action at Browns Marine Services. Six of us then went to the dock and took a lobster boat the half mile across the Thorofare to Vinalhaven. We were greeted the other side by a real American yellow school bus that took us to the school to see a concert.

On the way we passed the granite quarries that the island is famous for albeit at a speed too fast for good photographs. The disused ones have now filled with ground water and are reputedly fantastic swimming pools - much warmer than the sea. We also saw the three wind turbines that now supply all of the electricity to the Fox Islands (Vinalhaven and North Haven). They went online in 2009, one of the first large wind power projects on the easy coast of the US, approved by a staggering vote of 383:5  by the members of the Fox Islands Electric Co-operative. 

We arrived at the Vinalhaven school after a 6 mile drive to the town. Considerably larger than North Haven, it even has a bank and a small supermarket! The architecture is slightly different too, reflecting the complete absence of farming on this island (unlike the sheep on North Haven). Trees cover most of the land here as there is little topsoil to allow for grazing land. The granite and lobster industries dominate, with these fishermen specialising in the deep waters, unlike the shallow fishing lobstermen from North Haven that they consider inferior!

The school here also served all ages but much larger, with 14 graduates this year.

The performance we saw was performed by Frederick Moyer, a full-time concert pianist whose family have a summer home on Vinalhaven. We listened to Sonatas by Bach, Haydn and Beethoven; then pieces by Rachmaninoff, Liszt and Dave Brubeck - he is also an accomplished jazz pianist.  The school had a beautiful Steinway for him to play, provided by the generosity of one of the 'summer' families. The concert itself was organised by the Fox Islands Concerts - a thriving organisation that supports the arts and is currently in its 54th year.  Moyer himself set up a camera that projected the keyboard on to the underside of the piano lid so we all had a remarkable view of his hands - well exercised by Rachmanininoff in particular.

It was a lovely evening and a chance to see Vinalhaven in the company of those that know it well - always and advantage.