Looe, small port with a huge community spirit at its heart.

Just after high water as night falls the last of Looe's inshore trawl fleet...

ties up at the fish market to land...

under a full moon...

on the opposite side of the river is the stunning...

new, Old Sardine Factory - with its upstairs restaurant, climbing wall and...

superb new ground-floor heritage centre...

that houses a captivating set of informative and interactive displays for all ages and interests starting with the development over time of this historic port... 

there are dozens of innovative features like this projector and white sail screen...

sensory boat store...

original pilchard press...

and the story of pilchard processing that once took place on the very same site...

a history of the man credited with developing the port...

including its famous granite bridge that spans the river...

cleverly mapped out throughout the ground floor...

a unique fishy photo booth...

an insight into the weather in the area...

a live interactive AIS display from which you can track the local fleet and other passing boats...

and other shipping communications...

there's even a virtual trip on an actual lifeboat shout...

and a time-lapse that cover the demolition and erection of the old and then new building

an accurate scale model of one of thew port's more traditional fishing boats...

some hands-on knot challenges for all the most common knots used by seafarers on small boats...

every inch of wall and floor space is covered with a well thought out and interesting ways of telling the story of Looe and its fishing community... 

there's even a 3D puzzle that helps explain how contour lines work on maps to show the topology of the area...

and that stunning floor graphic that sees the river Looe flow from one end of the room to the other...

even this panorama still doesn't do justice to the number and inventiveness of displays, objects and visual resources that a visitor can enjoy. A must visit for anyone in the area!

Ocean Pride Restoration Project goes under cover .

All hands on deck!  Great to see a willing band of volunteers on hand today ready to help erect what looked like a giant gazebo frame over the Ocean Pride project site so that restoration work can start under cover.



Here's the full set of pics covering the weekend's events!

Skills of the hand, artisnal work on and around the harbour.

The Fish Shop, retail outlet for PJ Tonkin, Newlyn Fish Merchant is undergoing a major refurbishment this week including a dramatic window display unusually these days created by a sign-writer rather than using a computer and vinyl......

all that is needed is a brush, a mahl stick (upon which to rest the brush and) and a steady and......

looks like some sort of ex-Admiralty launch.....

the big one has gone two up in recent days......

plenty of big visiting yachts.......

forklift 2 tons, old anchor 5 tons, no chance Royden......

new gear time for the Admiral Gordon.......

you can't call yourself a trawlerman until you can splice wire.......

and then when the damage has been done.......

cut out the damaged meshes and mend the rest of the trawl.......

good to see the old St Ives lugger Barnabus off to sea with a novice crew about to get a taste of life on a dipping lugger.