Pre- turkey, why not Turbot ' truffle starter :-)

Two rescued from yacht in #Transat Race bu #rescue193 from Culdrose

Two men who were stranded in the Bay of Biscay next to their sinking boat have been saved from the ten metre high seas by RNAS Culdrose. Navy search and #rescue officers battled through last night’s torrential rain and gale force winds to save two men who were stranded 176 miles south west of Land’s End after their racing yacht broke in half. 

The rescue, which has been described as “very difficult” by Falmouth Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre, took a total of 12 hours. Falmouth #Coastguard were alerted to the yacht’s distress signal at 6.50pm last night.

Rescue officers from RNAS Culdrose were called to assist the two sailors, one who is Swiss the other who is French. The team, who were flying to the limit of their range, were assisted by a French naval light-wing aircraft. The stranded men were taking part in the #Transat Jaques Vabre yacht race when their yacht, Rivages, encountered difficulties. After problems with the mast, the 19 metre yacht broke in half in the gale force nine winds and ten metre waves. The men were found wearing survival suits in the sea. Unfortunately the conditions were too severe and the yacht too damaged for rescue teams to access the men. Fortunately the Star Isfjord, a Norwegian container ship, diverted 30 nautical miles to help. The two men were safely picked up at 6am and are now on board a merchant fishing vessel, heading to Rotterdam, where it is predicted that they will land a 12pm on Christmas day.

Ian Guy, Falmouth Coastguard watch manager, said: "This has been a very lengthy rescue and demanding rescue. The yacht was a long way from land and at the mercy of massive waves. "The helicopter crew did all that they could but the damage to the yacht made it impossible for them to winch the crew to safety. It’s thanks to the skill and dedication of the crew of the Star Isfjord that we can happily report that the crew of the yacht are now on their way home for Christmas.”

Read more: http://www.westbriton.co.uk/RNAS-Culdrose-save-pair-stranded-French-yacht/story-20361391-detail/story.html#ixzz2oNfn4Ylb Follow us: @thisiscornwall on Twitter

Something wrong somewhere......#cfpo #quotas #inequity

Hand's off our fish!

A DUTCH trawler that operates out of Hull has acquired almost a fifth of England’s entire fishing quota. The 370ft Cornelis Vrolijk controls 18% of the permits allocated to England. It specialises in herring, mackerel and blue whiting. It means this one trawler — which has 457,166 quota units — has a greater allocation than the entire Cornish fishing fleet, which has 174,483 units for 92 vessels and fishing organisations.

Details of the extraordinary dominance of the Cornelis Vrolijk have emerged in a list of the vessels and companies that control Britain’s fishing quota of 8m units. England has nearly 2.5m. The Sunday Times has campaigned for the quota register to be published in full and last week, for the first time, it was put online by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).



See Zembla - Wild West at Sea!

On board of the pelagic super-trawlers of the company Parlevliet and Van der Plas is 'fished by request'. An employee of the company tells ZEMBLA: 'It has already sold the fish, before it is caught anyway. If the fish does not have the height and weight as agreed, then the fish is thrown overboard. Dead.'

These are the kinds of boat we are talking about

Gravlax #xmastreats

Bit late starting the Gravlax this year!

Wight, Portland, Plymouth ....... increasing #storm force 11

Satellite view of the huge depression over the North Atlantic with warm air from the Gulf of Mexico feeding the storm!

Wind speeds from the Sevenstones Lightship at 10:30am on Monday courtesy of the NOAA

Gale 8                         41-47 mph 
Severe gale  9              48-55
Storm 10                     48-55  
Violent storm 11           56-63 
Hurricane 12                64+

Shipping Forecast for 6am Monday

Thames, Dover, Wight, Portland, Plymouth, Biscay

Southwest 6 to gale 8, backing south or southwest gale 8 to storm 10, occasionally violent storm 11 later. Rough or very rough, becoming very rough or high later. Rain. Moderate or poor

Fitzroy

Southwest gale 8 to storm 10, occasionally violent storm 11 later. Very rough or high, becoming very high later in northwest. Rain. Moderate or poor

Sole, Lundy, Fastnet

Southwest veering west later, 7 to severe gale 9, occasionally storm 10. Very rough or high, becoming high or very high. Rain, squally showers later. Moderate or poor, occasionally good later

Irish Sea

Southwest, backing south for a time, 7 to severe gale 9, perhaps storm 10 later. Rough or very rough, becoming very rough or high later. Rain or showers. Moderate or good, occasionally poor

Shannon

Southwest 7 to severe gale 9, veering west severe gale 9 to violent storm 11 perhaps hurricane force 12 later. High or very high, perhaps phenomenal later. Rain or squally showers. Moderate or poor

Rockall, Malin, Hebrides, Bailey

South or southwest 5 to 7, becoming cyclonic gale 8 to storm 10, perhaps violent storm 11 later. High or very high. Rain or showers. Moderate or poor

Another huge low to hit the Uk on Christmas Eve #stormyweather

This stunning image is from http://earth.nullschool.net/ and is a composite image created by supercomputers from all round the world working together to create this almost live view (it is updated every 3 hours) of the world's weather systems - and given the forceast chart from the Met office...

this low is one of the lowest ever at a predicted 922...

dure to hit the country over Christmas Eve! - you really don't want to be fishing anywhere on the west coat of the UK over the next few days - wonder how many French and Spanish boats are out at Rockall and the Porcupine Bank at the moment keeping an eye on these depressions as they head across the Atlantic?

Magic monk!

Pan fried monk kick off the Christmas weekend - nice one Al :-)