Steam's up aboard the Santa Special in Swanage

Over the weekend Swanage enjoyed some early morning sunshine.....
with the remaining wet fish shop, Swanage Bay Fish, offering a 'Today's Special' on locally caught sprats.....
around the town there are some unusual artworks.....

but surely top of the list for visitors is the renowned Swanage Railway where all aspects of steam engine life can be viewed from many angles........
including taking coal and water .....
before the engines make their way to the station......
and depart for the end of the line at Norden Park a mile south of the famous Corfe Castle ruins....
manned by a dedicated team of volunteers of all ages, some of whom are seen here cleaning up after an ash box has been emptied into the pit.....
and polishing the Westcountry Class Eddystone an engine that would have pulled trains to Penzance on many occasions.......at this time of year thousands visit Swanage station and make their way aboard the Santa Special where the kids get to travel with Santa and a present while the adults are treated to mince pies......
leaving Swanage station with all the sights, sounds and smells that are associated with these classic examples of British engineering that helped create the modern industrialised world as we know it today......
at the end of the day, St Mary's Church played host to the Belvedere Singers seen here with the audience participating in singing the Twelve Days of Christmas as they raise funds in support of their local Swanage Hospital.

New white weather window from Windfinder.

Thanks to the ever-helpful Jonas at Windfinder, the weather forecast for Newlyn and the surrounding area displayed on the right side of the blog is now up and running and, more importantly, visible to all.

For more detailed coastal info, if you click on the 7 day forecast and then 'Google map' at the top of the page there is a handy little facility where you can click on each arrow and get more detailed info for each location.

If you have any suggestions on how this weather info could be improved - either content or display - they will be gratefully accepted and passed on to the developer at Windfinder.

First fresh fish Friday for weeks

Morlaix registered Steren Mor (ex-Emmanuel) sits alongside the quay......
black gold - signs of a busier market this morning......
though there is a stiff breeze filling the Bay.....
these wrasse would look stunning on any mongers display, not too sure about the eating though, recollect something akin to soggy cotton wool.......
the buyers have been kept busy most of the week once the boast started returning from a few days at sea.....
Roger Nowell on the Imogen keen as ever to keep it that way with a good dollop of haddocks on the ground......
and even a couple of 'blues', steer clear of that hard ground Roger......
James' fish at speed in the market bustle......
these little red beauties will be flying out of a restaurant for sure this evening.......
some of the very first official Cornish Sardines to come across the market floor as reported by the Guardian yesterday........
first of the big netters, the Gary M gets her shot of big pollack up for sale.....
complete with tree, the scene is all set for this evening when Penlee Lifeboat cox'n 'Patch' Harvey will do the honours and throw the switch that turns on the lights, preceded of course by a suitably extravagant firework display - a big thank you in advance to all those volunteers who freely give of their time in all weathers to see that the harbours brings in thousands of visitors over the Christmas period.

Helicopter lifts lone angler from Falmouth inshore lifeboat at full speed.

This short video, shot by a member of the Falmouth inshore lifeboat crew, exemplifies the skill with which RNAS Culdrose SAR crews operate.



A lone angler is picked up by the ILB, as it speeds back across the estuary the diver from the rescue helicopter drops aboard and within seconds lifts off the casualty.

Cornish Sardines in at number 40!

After several years of painstaking research and development by catchers and producers alike, Cornwall's sardine fishermen can now land and sell their unique product with the same PDO protection as Arbroath Smokies and a host of other well known brands like Wenslydale Cheese, Parmigiano-Reggiano Cheese, Parma Ham, Burgundy, and Port. Cornish Sardines are the 40th such product to have been granted PDO status in the UK

Cornish Sardines are mainly caught by a small fleet of boats in Newlyn and Mevagissey using ring nets. See the full story here from the BBC or visit the Sardine Management Association's site. The Pilchard Works web site give a useful background to the story of sardine fishing including recordings of fishermen from St Ives and the ports along the south east Cornish coast like Mevagissey.

Hopefully, a spell of more settled weather will see the elusive fish return to the inshore waters of Cornwall. In recent weeks the severe winter storms have pushed the sardine shoals further offshore than the fleet of small inshore vessels are safely able to fish.

Windfinder supplies Through the Gaps with weather data.

As of today the BBC weather info on the right of the blog's home page has been replaced with an new feed that highlights wind data. The BBC data seemd at odds with the local weather for much of the time, time will tell if the new data, coming from a weather station at Land's End, proves more accurate.

There are a couple of issues with regard to the text display that are preventing the wind speed in knots, direction and air pressure in millibars from showing over the black bacground.

The web site for this service, Windfinder, can be found here.

Ocean Spray - crewman thrown overboard off Land's End

Gillnetter Ocean Spray leaving the gaps in Newlyn.

When fishing 14 miles off Land's End a 30 year old crewman on the Ocean Spray was thrown overboard as the boat shot it's last tier of nets. The skipper quickly came astern and, with the help of the crew retrieved the fisherman who suffered crush injuries, a Culdrose SAR helicopter was called. However, with a heavy swell running it was decided to allow the injured man to be taken off by the Penlee lifeboat and the helicopter returned to its base at the air staion.