Cat varieties to be seen

Lyonnesse, biggest cat in the port is 'up on the hard' where her net transporter, specially deisgned to handle ring and purse nets, can clearly be seen.....
big beamer gear always attracts interest and today is no exception for the Billy Rowney as a couple of trippers gaze at around 8 tons of shackles and links suspended from the beam......
more of a cat and a half, a visiting multi-hull yacht on her pontoon berth soaks up the afternoon sun.....
another visiting Irish boat, WD211 sits on the new quay....
as Mike and the boys finish off a day's work on the gear......
another load of brown crab from the Pen Y Glas get winched aboard a waiting Portuguese vivier lorry....
never like this in my day! - these days trawl warps come ready marked - orange polypropylene strands are spliced between the lay of the warp, alternating one and two marks at a time so that the man on the winch can control how much warp has been shot and at an even speed from off the drums of the winch.....doing this job in Newlyn is awkward as the warp has to be payed out and measured down the quay under tension.....
plenty of hands on the quay to give young Edwin, single-handed tralwerman a hand landing....

Monday's mixed bag

No seasoned chef worth his salt would serve his customers supper through the use of sub-standard ingredients, so it comes as no surprise that serious chefs are clamouring for the saltiest of salts "made by the sea" by the Cornish Sea Salt Company down at Porthkerris on the Lizard.
Chef's tip: Try cooking your crab or other shellfish in seawater and taste the difference!


putting a shoulder to the job, CKS swaps out a tiewr of nets for overhaul at the net loft...
fun and games with the iceworks this morning meant a delayed landing for the Cornish Sardine boys, a couple of patient gulls use the ice bins as vantage point while waiting for breakfast to appear...
last of the netter's to fill the western end of the fish market this morning, the Carol H's hake makes up part of a good trip, let's hope the prices have picked up - there are plenty of cheap supplies coming from the South Atlantic it seems......
breadkfast is served!..........
outside PZ100, the small workboat Jannekeke waits for stores....

Hot coals to cook by.

In addition to the local boats there are always a few more hardy souls passing through Newlyn, here a French and German yacht exchange evening pleasantries.......
while over at Penzance, a rib from a visiting yacht passes by the Portree II who is engaged in some survey work in the harbour......
seems ribs are de-rigeur this eveing.......
last nettter to show yet again is the Carol H....
always a tricky boat to handle, a fin keel yacht gets to go aground inside Penzance harbour - time to get the kettle on and wait for the tide to turn and not panic....
remember the quality BBQ charcoal mentioned yesterday? here's why - here we are the following lunchtime with an aubergine wrapped up in foil and a few toms all bedded in the embers from the previous evening....
an hour later and the roasted toms and aubergine are ready for lunch!

Some sunny Saturdays seems so serene

Chloe T slowly steaming, she slips past the stationary tug Anglian Princess sitting safely at anchor......
it's a tight squeeze for the driver who must so look forward delivering to the Co-op every Saturday morning.....
not for girls - for you real men out there who use charcoal and not bottled gas - this IS the Rolls-Royce of charcoal - known local suppliers are Wyevale Garden Centres - takes at least an hour before the coals are white and ready to cook on - one helping will last you all night....
an interesting handmade weathervane is just one of the pieces on sale at Badcock Gallery's early summer showing.....
the Algrie has yet to get her prop back in place....
ex-local fishing vessel, the Meiz Creiz - a highly successful crabber in her day and sailed on for a season by none other than Newlyn's own harbour master, Andrew Munson, working mainly off the Scillies - is now a live-aboard in PZ wet dock....
if you fancy a sea-angling trip out on the wrecks then these are the guys to book with - Viking Charters or Bite Adventures...
David Pascoe's Little Pearl is having a major makeover with tanks being fitted for the Cornish Sardine season......
you work it out.........
good to see the Dry Dock still has jobs on its books, here the small coaster Boisterous is getting a hull job.....
half-water off the end of the North Quay and a measure of local water clarity - good news for the local divers....
early morning and the inshore day-hauling trawlers make their way out to the grounds.....
visiting Girl Debra shines in the early morning glow....

and the Crystal Sea II is back after her eventful last trip.

Leven Mor sinks - all rescued safely.

Seems there is no let up for the industry, this time the Foey registered Leven Mor has gone down off Mounts Bay. All hands were picked up safely by a Culdrose rescue helicopter and taken to Treliske Hospital.

The Leven Mor was featured just the other day on this blog for his colourful wheelhouse!

First-time visitor from Brixham, the trawler Girl Debra.

Dr Smart had these iron steps made in order to allow access to the loft above the fish processing store - then a neighbour rightly objected to the foot of the steps protruding into the roadway - out with the oxy-torch and a little impromptu smithying soon had that fixed - hence the odd step configuration!....
E444, Girl Debra has just taken fuel after deciding to land in Newlyn rather than steam 12 hours back to her home port of Brixham. These days boats are looking at every means to cut uneccessary steaming when they, 'travel to work'.....
just to make things difficult, another stern trawler, the Defiant had to be moved outside so that the Girl Debra could come alongside the end of the new quay for the waiting transport.....
regular maintenance on the shoes of a beam trawl includes welding 1" (that's 25mm or 2.5cm) blocks of steel to the bottom of the shoes....
a gaggle of yachts on the pontoon berths is the norm these days....
and, as ever in the early evening, the crew and possibly a few new neighbours join one another in the cockpit for a chinwag and brew - just like fishermen really only they get to do it every week of the year for free as it were - call it one of the perks of the job!....
the transport for the girl Debra's fish has arrived and gets the thumbs up as the driver reverses to the end of the quay.....

the floating pontoon used mainly to allow the painting of hulls has had a major refit and is now rebuilt and growth free.

Crystal suffers twice out to sea - what we miss in the port!

Biggest and most successful of local trawlers, Crystal Sea II has suffered this week at sea. First off one of the crew managed to lose the tops of his fingers after getting them crushed (traditionally known as 'trawlermen's rash') - the helicopter airlifted the casualty ashore to hospital. Then, after making the decision to carry on fishing the boat ended up with a rope in the prop and had to be towed in to St Marys in the Scillies. However, the harbourmaster was concerned that she drew too much to risk going alongside the quay which made the diver's job of releasing the melted rope from around her prop an arduous and time-consuming task.

You can read all about these incidents and more from a third party's perspective on a survey vessel working on the Jones' Bank, west of the islands. The bank is a favourite haunt of Breton prawn trawlers so expect there to be plenty of sightings for them! As it was, the survey vessel RRS James Cook was involved in both incidents. The Crystal Sea II has been commissioned to fish within a designated area alongside the James Cook so that the scientists aboard can identify the species of fish they have been recording on their fish-meters and sonar equipent..

Hot off the press!

With turbulent times for all sorts of commodities, be they oil or fresh-fish markets, there are comments coming from all directions on the state of play in the industry. Check out the ever-outspoken Quentin's blog on the Cornish Tuna site and, for an interesting peek at what the Spaniards were doing years ago, see Kevin Bennet's blog (think Consol Oils)!

Tea-up and time for tuna trip three!

No panic! says Quentin as he grabs a bacon buttie before heading off to the Nova Spero for their third tuna trip.....
still flying her mizzen sail, the Ben My Chree was bought many years ago from the Breton port of St Guenole - they disovered a full set of sails in her forepeak - bet they wish they had them now to help cut the cost of steaming - which is what the sails were for - the then Breton, Gloria Maris fished for tuna with poles just as the Nova Spero is today and would start the tuna season with a seven day steam down off the Azores!......
and here's her shot of hake on the relatively quiet market......
for the second time this year, young Charlie is caught working......
back on the Nova the boys are waiting aptiently for Quentin to finish his buttie and yarning.....
here's happy skipper Shaun about to leave for the tuna grounds....
but not before studying the latest sea temperature printouts for the Bay of Biscay.....
over on the slip, harbourmaster Andrew Munson keeps a careful eye on the Algrie as she is placed carefully in the cradle....

with their own personal fly-past organised, the Nova Spero heads off into the rising sun.