Fishing in heavy weather.

The language might be French but, the sea conditions in which the boat, skipper and crew work have no respect for any national interests - fishermen from all over the world face the same reality in order to put fish on our tables.

Small boats, big seas.

With gale warnings giving 10s and 11s for Plymnouth, Sole, Lundy and Fastnet...

it's no wonder to see a dozen French trawlers east side of the Lizard, a small number are dodging out of the weather close to the land off the Helford while a few hardy types continue fishing right along the six mile limit...

further out to sea, the small coaster Arklow Ranger is battling into huge seas off the Lizard and has been reduced to making around 2knots ever since she cleared the Lizard in the early ours of this morning, she has altered course to make the run north around Land's End more comfortable as the wind hopefully eases...

though at the moment the new Cefas Wavenet weather service webpage is showing 10 and 11 meter high waves right where she is headed!

the weather is so bad that the Sanskip Endeavour has been forced to turn round and seek shelter in Mount's Bay - the skipper having decided that rounding Land's End would be too dangerous for her.

Work in progress...

In poor weather, weather too poor to haul the nets safely, the boats slowly 'dodge' head to wind...

and although the boat pitches and yaws as she heads straight into the weather it is much more comfortable for the crew than rolling with the seas 'beam on'...

some further detail has been added to give the heavy seas more substance.

From gales in Cornwall to storms in Shetland

GUSTS WINDS - Windy says #Lerwick #Shetland just recorded a 95mph gust . . . . . . worse is still to come #Storm3 #ScotsStorm

— Windy Wilson (@WindyWilson88) January 10, 2015

The current weather systems courtesy of EarthNull show the main protagonist - an area of intense low pressure off the top of Scotland with the wind travelling in an anti-clockwise direction giving the hurricane force south westerly to westerly winds- while, unusually away to the west of the UK deep in the North Atlantic is a small(ish) area of high pressure - a bit of a renegade in meteorological terms as it is normally a huge area of high pressure that creates the 'North Atlantic blocking system' which forces successive lows coming across from the eastern seaboard of the US to travel north east across the ocean - giving the UK its familiar weather pattern of southwesterly - westerly winds that eventually go north west - only to start the cycle all over again as the next low hits arrives on our shores...

average wind speed from the weather buoy 64406 off the top of Scotland at 0700 today...

with the corresponding wave height data...

contrasted with the wind speed from the buoy at the Sevenstones off Land's End, Cornwall... 

looking ahead to the 14th when things don't look so good either!

Bad weather? - even the Spaniards are dodging!!

Niall Duffy ‏@WestCorkPhoto

@power633 @Ajax_Hake You know its bad outside when the Spannies are dodging for cover behind Bere Island

View Bere Island off Castletown in a larger map

The above tweet only just hints at just the sea conditions in the South Western Approaches and the West coast of Ireland over the last twenty four hours...

Here, the weather conditions at buoy 62107, the Sevenstones Lightship off Land's End - the wave heights are in feet...

or the K1 buoy well south west of Ireland and Cornwall...

while at Rockall the pressure and wave height have dropped rapidly to a mere 26 feet!...

further south and way west of Ireland on the treacherous Porcupine Bank the wave height topped an incredible 45 feet earlier today - and the wind has barely exceeded 50 knots!...

This video was shot some years ago aboard a Spanish long liner working at Rockall - and shows the FV MAR AZUL call sign MQSL8 filmed from FV TROITA call sign MQSR8 in very rough seas - the conditions are extreme and are probably a match for the wave heights currently being recorded around the western coasts of the UK and Ireland! Undoubtedly, there area number of these vessels working on the Rockall and Porcupine Banks as you read this!