[JohnR]

Wasque is not far from having the rip inside the pond and lagoon. It didn't happen this time but we might not be lucky the next time. Here is what I found on it... From the MV Times: http://www.mvtimes.com/online_folder/news6.htm

Norton Point Beach Link to Chappaquid#^&#^&#^&#^& Often Breached

By Matthew Pelikan

Despite predictions that a breach appears imminent, Norton Point Beach, the strip of marsh, dunes, and sand that connects Katama with Wasque, withstood this week's pounding high tides.
But that does not mean that history will not repeat, allowing the waters of Katama Bay to flow into the ocean.
The likely site of the breach, toward the eastern (Wasque) end of the beach, is visible from the Edgartown side of the bay as a notch in the dune line, above a sandy spillway stripped of vegetation by seawater washing into Katama Bay during recent storms.
While coastal erosion is a fact of life on the Vineyard, we don't often face a geographic change of this magnitude: a cut in Norton Point would sever the only land link between Chappaquid#^&#^&#^&#^& and the Vineyard proper, and it would radically alter the flow of water through Katama Bay and perhaps Edgartown harbor. To some observers, the prospect of such an exercise by the forces of nature is proving to have an irresistible allure.
You can bet that those who fish are paying attention: a Norton Point cut would complicate access to Chappy fishing hotspots, but tidal flow in and out of the cut would assuredly attract both the noble bluefish and the even more noble striped bass. Astute birders and clammers are paying attention, since changes in tides, currents, and sediments would affect their quarry in Katama Bay.
And folks interested in coastal dynamics are simply captivated by a chance to study a rare geological event. Dukes County biologist and beach manager Rob Culbert has been eagerly assembling precise GPS (global positioning system) survey data and collaborating with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution scientists to install measuring devices that will record the tidal conditions when or if a break occurs.
Yesterday, Mr. Culbert said it is remarkable that the beach did not give way to the forces of wind, high tides, and pounding surf. He said while a breach is expected, the exact set of conditions that would cause one is not exactly known.
Many Vineyarders take for granted the presence of an unbroken beach between Katama and Wasque. Historically, though, this situation is the exception rather than the rule. According to historian Charles Edward Banks, whose three-volume, 1911-vintage "History of Martha's Vineyard" is still a valuable and delightful resource, the name of Chappaquid#^&#^&#^&#^& probably derives from a Wampanoag name meaning "separated island" - linguistic evidence that Native Americans, with their 10,000-year perspective on the situation, regarded absence of a land link as the normal condition.
And looking even farther back, geologists suspect that Katama Bay was totally open at its southern end when rising sea levels first cut the Vineyard off from the mainland. The beach that spans the gap was created by the sea itself, after glacial processes had formed most of the Island.
Once established, though, what is now called Norton Point Beach has experienced a lively history. Like any barrier beach, it is a dynamic structure, shifting in size and location as prodigious volumes of sand wash around on the sea floor. Not until 1792 did the beach finally close for the first time in recorded history - a circumstance that was reversed within a few months. At times, it appears, openings existed simultaneously at Wasque and at Katama, leaving a barrier island in the middle; perhaps more generally, a single opening existed at the Wasque end, due to the tendency for openings to migrate east under the influence of prevailing currents. (This configuration is shown in a 1795 survey map that has been widely reproduced in Vineyard histories.) Despite today's link between Katama and Wasque, the history of a broken beach persists in a wide range of forms: look, for example, at the Vineyard map that adorns the back cover of your Verizon telephone directory.

Coninued below...