Fish on.

Despite the atrocious weather, a small fleet of Breton boats are still fishing away. Included in the AIS tracks are those of the Newlyn netter, Silver Dawn making her way home to land.........

as the wind continues to hover just under a steady 40 knots and the air pressure has steadied at around 29.2 millibars.

Live from St Enodoc - Nathan Oultlaw with Paul Ainsworth cooking masterclass.

Nathan shares a moment with fellow chef Paul Ainsworth from across the river Roc at the end of his final chef's masterclass for the year - keep an eye on the web site for next year's similar events.

Join Nathan and Paul for a six-course fine dining dinner with live interviews and demonstrations. The live event will be happening here, today, at 6pm. Catch the live masterclasses with Nathan Outlaw and Paul Ainsworth from the web site here.


Check out the soused mackerel dish - a great use for mackerel at Christmas - and those Panko breadcrumbs make an appearance again! 

Weather data - what's in a weather chart.

Typical weather data pattern for an approaching depression heading in from the Atlantic - taken from the weather station aboard the now un-manned Sevenstones Lightship. The barometer falls (barometric pressure) as the centre of the low nears the south west - the wind speed increases in the other direction with similar rapidity.

The current sat chart shows the first depression to hit currently at 960 millibars - which is quite low........

twelve hours on and the chart for 0600 tomorrow morning has the low deepening to 943, which is very low - the closer the isobar lines around the centre of the low are together the stronger the wind - looks like the west coast of Scotland is due for a hammering again.

This chart is a print out from a weather fax machine aboard the Breton boat, Le Heidi when she was sheltering in Newlyn on the 11th January 1993 - it shows the 940 millibar depression moving at 25 knots across the Atlantic........

before deepening to one of the deepest lows ever recorded at a predicted 911 millibars it hovered around 915 - unless someone knows different?......

sou'west of Ireland a weather buoy's chart has the wave height dropping over the last 24 hours from a high point of 32 feet around midnight last night to around 20 feet this evening.........

and all hands tied up alongside - though unlike not too many years ago, there's not a single French boat in sight!

At sea, an old saying has it that; wind before rain, set your sails again, rain before wind, sheet your sails in - in other words, if the heavy rain comes first and is followed by a rising wind (generally in this area from the south west) - look out!

Monday morning - with a forecast looking less than promising for the week.

Big moon means a big tide as the netters look forward to a week ashore.......

and big tides mean big squids........

and even, it seems,big bass fishing at the Stone.......

enough to keep the big boats and big buyers happy.......

paying big bucks for these monk tails.......

getting plenty of interest from a few market visitors........

fishes view through the hand grip of a harbour box.

Ajax lands at the end of another neep tide.

Skipper talk, discussing the forecast for the coming week........

as the first of the boxes exit the fishroom.......

ready for Monday's market.......

with an extra pair of hands to make things easier......

it's time for the Ajax to get her fish ashore......

steady as she goes.......

before heading for the market fridge......

looks worse than it is.......

the rub marks on the stern give an indication just how much she rolled her way home from west of the Scillies.......

Tom texts the news ashore.......

before heading up top........

to haul a few tiers of nets ashore......

then it's time for a visit from the monk-man.......

just the paperwork to do........

back on the harbour, the fender production line is in full swing.......

someone's set Debs off again!

All in a day's work.

An AIS shot of three boat's tracks. The top boat is a gill netter working gear on some inshore ground before moving off and stopping at a couple of wrecks. While the bottom tracks show two inshore trawlers, both shooting in an area known locally as 'the Westen Ends' before towing out towards the ground known as 'Nor'west of the Wolf' (as in Wolf Rock Lighhouse).

Christmas lights and shiny new marine electronics.

One set of mackerel feathers washed up minus the hooks, must have been down there for some time......

an evening of fun and entertainment for all the family, young and old alike, the Mission's Christmas special this Friday - in the Mission, all very welcome........

contact 0785504497 for more info on this Cygnus 19 for sale.......

Nigel has a few soft eye parlour pots for sale.......

just arrived despite the snow from the far north.......

clean and calm enough this morning, good to see the sky is still blue up there........

even though the clouds look a little menacing........

ready for the off, engines running on the Sparkling Line........

long shadows over the marina pontoons........

the harbour workhorses for the Stevenson fleet sit quietly........

all smiles despite the early hour for crab king, cap'n Harris........

bits of gear going down the quay with haker Andrew Stevens.......

early finish for the baby of the Ocean Fish ring net fleet.......

a few gallons of zinc has gone on the hull of PZ1001..........

despite appearances, the remaining timber on those worm-eaten fenders is still in top condition - amazing stuff wood.......

down comes a shower........

plenty of buffs for plenty of gear........

proud of the Irish connection, the Stevens can race their roots back to Irish antecedents, most likely shipwrecked when skipper Elijah failed to keep a good lookout........

top quality job on the engine and electrics box aboard the Benediction........

with easy access to the important engine bits....... 

ice time.........

good to see two trees gone in place this morning.......

and a third just gone up........

under the watchful eye of harbour lights stalwart George, next year's lights will be in doubt as the cost of insurance rose to over £4,000 this year!