Shades of Christmas past, tiz the eve of Christmas Eve in Newlyn - and a small Spanish invasion.

Two Rowse crabbers between trips...

and the Spanish UK-flagged stern trawler, Udra is landing...

the roof is currently being replaced down the end of the North pier...

with the entire Newlyn fleet now berthed at high water

she has been fishing on the Great ole Banks south of Ireland...

and normally lands into Castletownbeare...

but today is making one of her mandatory UK landings...

a condition...

of her Flag of Convenience...

which has seen so many UK licences...

used in that way...

with very little...

by way of economic benefit to the Uk economy as the fish is all save for a token dozen or so boxes all sent back to Spain for their markets......

another crabber gets the now familiar Rowse colours painted... 

back in Newlyn town there's a new shop opened in time for the Christmas break...

a mix of delicatessen, cafe and shop where you can hear old vinyl (LPs) records played on a turntable through Wharefdale speakers and a Leak amplifier - all very retro - there's even a kids' corner stocked with games and other forms of amusement.

Monday morning at Newlyn Fish Market

First of the hake netters to land this week after last week's huge equinoctial spring tide...

and the chance to use one of the harbour's new pallet trucks, though...

finding enough pallets to stack the fish boxes on was another matter, luckily young Edwin was on hand...

this week's hake...

come in all sizes...

with summer behind him young Roger Nowell has turned his attention to catching ray, nice landing of blondes, stars and undulate...

and the odd bull huss...

these top quality red mullet were soon sold...

while auctioneer Ian moved on to a landing from the beam trawler, Cornishman...

which included some whiter-than-white brill...

cuckoo ray...

lemon sole...

haddock...

no danger of this shark losing its fins...

all set for tomorrow's auction, fish from the Amanda of Ladram...

the beady eye of the shark keeping an eye on the auction in progress...

there were just a few boxes of John Dory from the inshore boats...

along with some handline pollack...

and mackerel...

male rays have large claspers that they use for reproduction - buried under soft flaps of skin are a series of hook-like appendages...

name this fish...

plate sized turbot...

the tub gurnard, ask your local fishmonger for this fish - a treat indeed...

gridlocked forklifts at the market...

having steamed from her home port of Vigo nearly two weeks ago the Spanish Flag of Convenience vessel, Udra has called in to Newlyn to make one of her token fish landings in order to meet the regulations that apply to such vessels...

the size of the main winch drums tells you that she works her trawls in very deep water - up to and over 100 fathoms - the top layers visible on the drums are  'combination' - a mix of wire warp and polypropylene that is used for the long bridles - combination does not 'dig' into the seabed like wire bridles would on the softer ground that these boats work on...

the trawl is hauled up and over the stern of the boat along the trawl deck and then passed down below for getting and washing...

the boat carries a huge amount of spare trawls and net...

 - a necessity when you are working what would be a four day round trip just to get back to Vigo from the fishing grounds SW of Ireland...

the Udra in the deepest quayside berth in the harbour...

on a very murky Monday morning.