Blue moons notwithstanding, it's late on Wednesday evening as skipper Shane Liddicoat steers the IFCA Fisheries Patrol boat St Piran in through the gaps...
to her berth for the night...
a few hours later and the Scillys ferry, Scillonian III is bathed in yet another dose of glorious morning sunlight...
later that evening Newlyn's resident fat seal...
chows down on a whole fresh hake for supper...
as one of the trawl doors on the Shiralee...
gets a gentle massage with a chisel and lump hammer courtesy of trawlerman Jeff Page...
astern of her the Karen of Ladram has just landed several hundred boxes of hake...
and the film crew captures footage of the Ajax taking ice after landing...
and director/cameraman Luke wields his hefty Canon...
and tries to muster the boys around their skipper...
in order to frame the traditional skipper+crew+wheelhouse name shot...
as the ice flows aboard....
and their 230 hundred box trip of fish waits in the fridge for the night staff to come on shift to sort, grade, weigh and present the fish for Friday morning's market...
which has an unusual collection of shellfish up for auction this morning including these large sea urchins
whelks...
and crab claws...
the odd big blonde...
there was hake form four netters all told including a huge trip of white fish from the Stelissa...
caught on camera...
before being whisked away...
the buyer's tallies just kept coming...
for hake from the Karen of Ladram...
a double dose of black bream from an inshore boat...
with the odd hake keeping an eye on things...
with row after row of stacked boxes...
that filled both the grader chill room ...
and the main auction hall...
with four beam trawlers making up the biggest market for weeks with big trips from the Billy Rowney...
William Sampson...
Twilight III...
with lemon soles
monk tails...
and haddock...
the odd red mullet...
and a big shot of spur dogs from the Ajax, one of only a handful of boats licensed to retain these now abundant fish on board...
along with his shot of hake...
more than enough to keep auctioneer Ryan busy...
on such a crowded market...
with fish boxes covering most of the floor...
not that that deters the buyers from making the most of the moment...
as more hake comes up for auction...
PZ810, almost ready to go back to sea...
as the William Sampson takes on a few thousand litres of fuel before sun-up.
