After steaming for 22 hours from 180 miles west of Newlyn the Ajax put ashore a huge trip of over 400 boxes of hake, most caught in the last 36 hours of the trip as the tide jumped...
with such a big trip four teams of sorters were need, even drafting in auctioneer Ryan for the night...
the ice carefully removed from the top of each box...
before each fish is weighed individually...
with hundreds of boxes waiting on the market floor to be sorted...
graded and iced...
and then stacked five high to minimise the amount of floor space taken up...
there still wasn't much room to move...
until the entire trip had been sorted...
ready for the morning 6 am auction...
when the buyers assembled for the sale...
from the Ajax...
the sale only took the best part of ten minutes...
with some buyers taking 1000s of kilos in one hit...
the auction was over a lot quicker...
than it took the Ajax and her crew to catch the fish...
prices were good considering...
the amount landed from one boat...
so the Ajax...
crew, enjoying a relaxing cuppa for a change...
on the boat are looking for a big wage packet this trip...
with skipper Sid, who has just tied up the Karen of Ladram, due to land over 430 boxes for Wednesday's market - though he will be splitting his fish between Newlyn, Plymouth and Brixham auctions to reach more buyers - something that would not be necessary when Newlyn moves to a remote computer auction.
