Catching Cornish hake

One hundred and nine miles as the sea bird flies from home, the Newlyn netters Govenek of Ladram and the Ajax work side-by-side to bring home the catch. The boats try to stagger their landings of fish at Newlyn and Brixham so as to avoid flooding the market on any one day. This week, the Karen of Ladram landed on Monday, the Ajax is due for Thursday's market and the Govenek aims to land for Friday, if all goes to plan.

Work in progress - STS Lord Nelson oil on canvas

It would have been nice to have worked form sketches made at sea but a selection of photos will have to suffice including this one...

starting with roughing out the boat and horizon in charcoal on canvas..

and giving a couple of background colour washes in raw umber and ultramarine blue mixed with viridian to give the work some shape...

forming the background heavy skies and the heavy seas ahead.

Penlee and Sennen lifeboats in a joint search off Land's End.

Penlee lifeboat Ivan Ellen...

has steamed out to help search with the Sennen lifeoboat south east of Land's End.

Monday's fishing news from Newlyn

Plenty of beam trawl fish for those who need...

megrim soles...

plaice...

name this fish...

and with so much fish there's plenty of data to be collected...

which means each fish to be measured...

the early mornings...

puts the buyers in a good light as they make their way to the next boat to be sold...

with a last minute call to check back on prices elsewhere...

one of the great predators of the sea...

landed by the netters...

the guys seem to have the measure of things...

another fish to ID...

the Rowse crabber, Harriet Eve lies astern of her big sister Emma Louise...

flying form the wheelhouse of one seriously patriotic Cornish netter...

Newlyn has proved a very popular stopping off point for the more serious leisure sailors, as these boats form France and Holland testify...

chances are this concrete hulled boat is a liveaboard...

40 gallons of juice for a big cat...

in-between trips...

the latest sardine boat should be ready for the season which should kick off before the end of the month...

Franchise now minus her foremast...

in the water, on the water.

Hello Mr Hicks

Making her way to take ice...

for the next trip, the hake boat, Govenek of Ladram ties up in the ice berth...

with skipper Phil Mitchell the smiley one in charge...

spot the main man's mate waiting to tighten up the stern rope...

Andrew Stevens points out the finer aspects of his new net hauler - having mounted a starboard hauler on the port side allows him (as he works singlehanded) to access the fish much more easily as they come up through the hauler - with the extra thick guide bar preventing fish and floats from catching before the pressure wheel...

a haker and proud of it, there's no doubt where Mr Stevens' family hails from

he's in good company it seems...

causing a few double takes in the harbour this morning, after five years of antipodean adventures young Mr Hicks returns to do what he does best...

all under the watchful eye of father to three (well ship's husband for the Govenek fleet) Shaun Edwards...

make mine  a large one shouts Tom as he prepares to take a ton of ice on the Harvest Reaper...

the equivalent to rush hour in Newlyn as boats take ice or come in to land...

like the Rowse crabber, Intuition....

under the watchful eye of skipper Alan Nudd...

as he comes in to berth astern of the Emma Louise.

It's a shellfish kind of day.

Take three spiders and a brown crab...

add to the spicy tomato sauce...

and serve with spaghetti de Nero di Seppia - nice one Andrew!

Video of a giant barrel jellyfish in Newlyn.

Large numbers of barrel jellyfish have been reported in recent weeks swimming in Mount's Bay. This one seems to have made it into the harbour in Newlyn and was enjoying a tour of the marina berths in the sunshine. They are number one dish on the leatherback turtle diet sheet!