Scillies lifeline - the Gry Maritha is on her way!

The Scillies supply ship, Gry Maritha stranded since last Friday in Penzance dock, is finally on her way to the beleaguered islands thirty five miles off the storm battered Cornish coast.......

with all those important supplies......

like beer, although the chances are with many people having nothing better to do on the islands than retire to the nearest bar and discuss the terrible weather outside it is likely that supplies of Christmas cheer are running low - at just over 6 knots the Gry is making her way slowly towards the islands, no doubt much to the relief of locals, shops and pubs!

Tracked all the way to the Scillies - next question is, when will she return?

Tracked all the way to the Scillies - next question is, when will she return?

When the wind is in the west, the fishing is best.....

Shipping forecast for the south west:

Gale warnings - Issued: 0338 UTC Thu 15 Dec

Severe gale force 9 backing southwesterly and increasing storm force 10 soon, then increasing violent storm force 11 later

Shipping Forecast - Issued: 1130 UTC Thu 15 Dec

Wind Southwest 7 to severe gale 9, increasing severe gale 9 to violent storm 11, veering northwest 7 to severe gale 9 later.

Sea State High or very high.

Weather Rain or showers.

Visibility Good, occasionally poor.

But not when the wind has been consistently around gale force 8 for several days with gusts over 60mph........

and the wave height at the Sevenstones Lightship is beginning to approach 30 feet........

so as Cornwall is lashed by gales, dozens of property damaged by lighening strikes and any number of trees blown down - spare a thought for this group of French trawlers working south of the Dodman Point hoping to gain a little from being in the lee of the Lizard land mass!

The AIS tracks from VesselTracker show how some of the boats have steamewd stright from their home ports across the channel (that's at a time when the huge Brittany ferry has been cancelled) to fish their last trip for the christmas market when prices are sure to be sky high.

Great results for Fish is the Dish! campaign.

Seafish, the UK's authority on seafood, reports a superb response to its 'Fish is the Dish' campaign. Launched in October, it has so far reached 120,000 consumers (twice as many as anticipated by this early stage) and this week was ranked the UK's 15th 'Most Talked About' blogging campaign by the Tots 100 Brand Index - just two places behind Tesco. 


Fish is the Dish is a hardworking digital campaign using website, Facebook and Twitter to engage mums in the idea that 'Fish is Easy'. Whilst not traditional heavy users of seafood, mums are a prime target for messages about increased fish consumption because having children in the household means they are receptive to ideas and information about food and health. They are also known to be heavy internet users. Susanna Scott (A Modern Mother) is the founder of BritMums (the UK's largest parent blogging community) and was one of the bloggers initially targeted by Seafish. She says, "Like a lot of busy mums I was quite sceptical at first about preparing seafood and how much of it I could get my children to eat. Having tried a number of the Seafish recipes I am proud to say my entire family are now converts to the fish eating habit. I have been only too pleased to spread the word about Fish is the Dish to my own friends and contacts." 


Seafood industry stakeholders are also encouraged to engage with Fish is the Dish as a new means to reach potential consumers. So far, Lyons Seafood, Scottish Shellfish Marketing Group, Young's Seafood and Delish Fish have all got involved, providing packs of seafood for bloggers, encouraging the generation of more content and publicity. Jo Dunlop of Seafish says, "Fish is the Dish has got off to a fantastic start. We have had strong participation, brilliant feedback from our mum community and the average dwell time on the website is over ten minutes. "The campaign has also demonstrated superb value for money - we were particularly delighted to rank at 15 in the Tots 100 Index given the minimal size of our budget compared to that of other top ranked brands such as Tesco, Disney and X-Factor. This shows just how much it is possible to achieve with online techniques provided that the right messages are targeted at the right people." 


Plans for 2012 include a 'Fish is the Dish' roadshow to kick start local conversations about the project. This will link up with local mums, kids, bloggers, media, chefs, fishermen, retailers and other industry stakeholders. 


How industry can get involved in Fish is the Dish:


 · By supplying a logo and links for the supplier pages of the new website to Jo Dunlop via email j_dunlop@seafish.co.uk or telephone 0131 524 8684. · Providing recipes and useful hints/tips – you can upload your own company recipes to the website. http://www.fishisthedish.co.uk


 · Follow the new campaign on Twitter @fishisthedish


 · ‘Like’ the campaign on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/fishisthedish and feel free to put up your own comments, recipes and hints and tips here too.

Working in the lee.

The French boats left trawling south of the Dodman - Neway, Daytona, Erispoe, Testerossa, Bar Avel and Iroise.

When the weather approaches the limits if fishability, those boats remaining at sea seek whatever shelter they can. In the case of these half dozen French boats tracked by VesselTracker AIS they are all towing the same patch of ground south east of Falmouth. Thanks to the Lizard and Land's End peninsulas which provide a small degree of 'cut' from the huge seas rolling in from the Atlantic and.........

from the wind which has been held coming in from the west for more than 24 hours - as seen from the Sevenstones Lightship data. Even so, the work on deck will be made all the more uncomfortable and arduous as the boat will not cease from rolling heavily at all times.

Cefas Endeavour back at sea and blogging again.

Catch the latest updates from the Cefas Endeavour as they ride out the stormy conditions on their new hunting ground - the English Channel. The ship is on her final voyage for 2012 - a joint trip with the JNCC .

The teams sailed on Cefas Endeavour from Lowestoft on the morning tide on Saturday (10/12/11) with a multidisciplinary team of scientists including marine ecologists, fisheries scientists, plankton taxonomists and acoustic specialists. Also joining us on this survey are colleagues from The Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC).

The main aim of the survey is to assess/monitor the effects of a range of human activities on seabed habitats in three regions; The Eastern English Channel, The Outer Thames and The Dogger Bank. See the blog for full details here:

Falmouth Coastguard kept busy.

Helicopter rescue crews braved treacherous seas and gale force winds to airlift an injured French fisherman from his ship to hospital. The French vessel was 20 miles north west of Land's End yesterday afternoon when the man gashed his hand. Winds of up to gale force nine were battering the ship making it difficult for RNAS helicopter crews to land a winch man on deck. It took an hour before he could be landed safely. Falmouth coastguards received a call for aid from coastguards in France at around 1.45pm. By 2.40pm helicopter crews were on scene. None of the ship's crew spoke English so Falmouth coastguards liaised with them through French colleagues.



Team Tom take to the liferaft:

At 7.54pm yesterday, Falmouth Coastguard received an alert from an emergency locator beacon in the Atlantic and coordinated the rescue of two rowers from a life raft.  Falmouth Coastguard received the alert from 480 miles south west of the Canary Islands from the UK registered beacon belonging to the Atlantic Challenge rowing boat PS Vita. The race organisers also confirmed that they had lost polling contact with PS Vita just after 7pm.

Falmouth Coastguard broadcast an alert to all vessels in the area but the nearest vessel which could provide assistance was the Bahamian registered cruise ship Crystal Serenity approximately 120 miles from the location of the alert.  The Crystal Serenity turned back and proceeded at speed through the night to the position and within seven miles of the position they spotted a red flare. Shortly afterwards at about 6am they located the two rowers in their life raft who were recovered on board the cruise ship.

The rowers are a Dutch and a British National. The PS Vita is a 7.3 metre ocean rowing vessel with two people onboard taking part in a Woodvale Trans-Atlantic challenge from the Canary Islands to Barbados. The two rowers are reported to be uninjured despite at least ten hours in their life raft. Conditions on scene were 25 knots wind with a three metre swell.


From inside the rowing boat the story went something like this.......


"Tom got out from the cabin, as I climbed in. We encouraged each other as usual for the shift that lay ahead. I turned to look at the GPS to see the milage I had row in the last 2 hours, as Tom put his leash on. Just as I went for the cabin hatch handle Tom Shouted "Shit Shit Shit" and a wall of water hit us, capsizing us immediately and flooding the Cabin. I managed to get out of the cabin, to find Tom holding on to the hull of the boat. Thank god he was leashed on and managed to hold on to the boat. The wave that hit us came at a 45 degree angle and was enormous, we were truly very unlucky."


Extracted from the guys Facebook page, Team Tom Atlantic Row - see here:

Alya, Dodging for 24 hours.

The Guilvinec registered trawler Alya is currently working south of the Scillies.......

though for the last twenty-four hours she has been dodging head to wind as can be seen from her AIS tack, heading into the south westerly seas to begin with before her last run as she heads west. The boat steams slowly with her bow facing directly into the wind to minimise the amount the boat rolls, eventually coming round 180º and making her way back to a start point and repeating the move........

wind height data from the Sevenstones Lightship just a few miles north of where the Alya is currently working shows a swell height between 10-20 feet.