Trawlers on canvas - David Langsworthy's exhibition at the Mission.

Pollack wait to be picked up for filleting.......

its not just a rumour then Mario........

after coming astern on a spring as she pushes inside the big crabber.......

the Sea Lady uses her bow thruster to move to the quay.......

another Brixham beamer, Sasha Emeil, waits for sailing orders.......

these dredges won't be shiny for long on the giant scalloper Jacoba......

annual paint up time for KY1001...........

another set of new warps ready to go aboard.......

tomorrow the Ripple will be joined by the luggers Barnabus and Happy Return inside the Old Quay to celebrate Painting on the Pier day.......

next week the Mission will hold a fund raising painting exhibition of work by marine artist David Langsworthy.......

you have been warned!

Crew airlifted from fishing boat Ben My Chree off Land's End.

Gill-netter Ben My Chree leaving Newlyn.

The last recorded AIS position of the Ben My Chree off Land's End before power was lost.

At 00.27 am Falmouth Coastguard received a Mayday distress call from the fishing vessel Ben My Chree with five crew onboard. Their distress call reported that they were taking water and sinking 17 nautical miles East North East of the Isles of Scilly. Falmouth Coastguard immediately broadcast a Mayday relay, and requested the scramble of Rescue Helicopter R193 and St Marys All Weather Lifeboat. Another Newlyn registered fishing vessel CKS responded to the broadcast and proceeded from 7nm away at best speed. The wind was a force 5 from the west south west with a moderate to rough sea.

Once on scene R193 attempted to lower the Coastguard pump down onto the vessel but this proved impossible due to the weather conditions. The water level in the vessel was still rising and the crew were getting very concerned, so R193 winched four, including skipper Steve Hicks off the vessel. Crewman Jamie Vickar was the last to leave and even though he had knocked the engine out of gear when he left the wheel house the vessel continued to proceed in a very erratic manner due to the mizzen sail being set. This meant that R193 could not winch him off so he was taken off onto the St Marys Lifeboat and from there winched to R193. All five crew were then transferred to Culdrose where they were met by a few members of the Penzance Coastguard Rescue Team who transported them back to their homes in Newlyn.

The CKS was released to continue and the St Marys lifeboat stood alongside the Ben My Chree until first light. As the night progressed the Ben My Chree sank lower in the water, the engine stopped, its AIS ceased to transmit and its navigation lights went out. As the vessel was drifting across the Lands End Traffic Separation scheme Falmouth Coastguard made a Security Broadcast to all vessels in the area to be aware and to keep a sharp lookout and a wide berth.

The area between Land's End and the Scillys has a very busy traffic separation scheme in place, at the moment there is a concentration of French trawlers working just to the south of the incident.

Marc Thomas, Watch Manager, Falmouth Coastguard said:

"The crew of the Ben My Chree were calm and professional in a very uncertain situation and the skipper passed all the necessary information to ensure a swift rescue. The crew of R193 tried repeatedly to lower the Coastguard pump onboard but were unable to do so, but they managed to recover four of the crew off the fishing vessel in challenging conditions."

Courtesy of Fred Caygill at the MCA.

'Cormorant' salvages Dutch fishing boat off Dunkirk.

Dutch towage and salvage specialist Multraship has salvaged the fishing trawler Nieuwpoort 28 (N28) which capsized off Dunkirk on 1 March. The trawler capsized twenty miles off the French/Belgian coast. It was upside-down in the water and the French and Belgian Coastguards mobilised a Search & Rescue operation during which Navy divers searched the vessel but were unable to find any of the trawler’s three crew members. Two brothers and their brother-in-law were all from the close-knit Zeeland fishing community.

Newlyn Archive - call to action.

This Saturday will see fishing luggers return in numbers not seen for nearly a century to the Old Quay in Newlyn. Painting at Party on the Pier is one of many events celebrating the start of British Tourism week when an open invitation to come and paint such an historic scene. Newlyn Archive members will be on the quay with photgraphs, drawings and other materials to help add to the authenticity of the occasion.

"Not a done deal" says the MCA as row boat Papa Delta reaches Antigua - thanks to FCG.

Many of those who attended the public meeting on the proposed Coastguard cuts that include ending 24/7 cover at Falmouth came away feeling that it was "a done deal". A spokesperson for the MCA on Radio Cornwall's Breakfast Show this morning failed to convince that this was the case and prompted one caller to ring in and say they would be contacting their local MP in protest.


News has reached our shores,via Falmouth Coastguard of course who over night were monitoring the arrival of Papa Delta, the two-handed rowing boat that has just arrived safely in Antigua after crossing the Atlantic raising money for Parkinson's UK. Their exploits including a post just a few moments after arriving can be viewed on their blog here.


The two brothers, Matthew and Christian Cleghorn, aboard the boat made the headlines a few weeks back when their boat was hit by a large wave which swamped their food stores causing them to call for help via FCG and again a few weeks later when the steering was damaged.

Princes change their tuna!

Picture courtesy of Greenpeace International.

After a year long campaign that culminated in dozens of sharks climbing to the top of Princes HQ in Liverpool the company have vowed to change their sourcing methods for tuna. While Hugh's Fish Fight campaign cannot take full credit for this decision it is likely that the TV series earlier this year speeded the company's decision to align itself with other major food retailers wishing to appear 'green' and tick their 'we source from sustainable stocks' and 'dolphin friendly' methods. With the EU looking to end the practice of discards already in the pipeline we wonder what next significant event change will shape the future of fishing?  

Cefas collects cuttlefish catch data.

Over 20 tubs of cuttles go for auction......

which leaves the Cefas team the task of recording a sample form each tub - in line with the current sampling practice from Cefas where the entire landing from a boat is recorded - similar to sampling catches sea - in this case the board records a sample of small cuttles that ranged in size from 6 to 11cm - this kind if data is unique, there being almost no hard data or even knowledge of these fascinating creatures currently being caught in the deep water well south of Mounts Bay - in the coming weeks it is usual for a cuttlefish season to begin off the Suffolk coast where fish are trapped in water as shallow as two fathoms - whether these fish are the same stock as the fish landed above seems unlikely but the little of their lifecycle is known........

a little bit of wreck fish for the Twilight III.......

and some quality megs.......

there are still a few sardines to be found by the ring net boats even at this late stage of the season - unlike King Harbour Marina near Los Angeles in the USA where millions of sardines and other fish have died - the reason seems to be a case of oxygen starvation with so many fiosh confined in a small harbour!......

more signs of the scallop season getting underway.......

the paint job has been completed on Penzance prom's, 'From Here to Modernity' piece.