"To begin at the beginning: It is autmun, moonless night in the small town, starless and bible-black, the cobblestreets silent and the hunched, courters'-and-rabbits' wood limping invisible down to the sloeblack, slow, black, crowblack, fishingboatbobbing sea. The houses are blind as moles (though moles see fine to-night in the snouting, velvet dingles) or blind as Captain Cat there in the muffled middle by the pump and the town clock, the shops in mourning, the Welfare Hall in widows' weeds. And all the people of the lulled and dumbfound town are sleeping now."
but not so on Newlyn fish market this fine #FishyFriday morning...
where the netter Govenek of Ladram's hake is up for auction...
along with a inshore trawl fish from boats like the Harvest reaper...
and the beam trawler William Sampson Stevenson...
with her trip of turbot...
and bream...
a few handliners braved yesterday's uncomfortable seas to land a few boxes of mackerel...
as the inshore boats harvested a handful of late season John Dory...
and ray...
more than enough to put smiles on the faces of some buyers...
as others like Sam from Iceberg makes another morning call back to the office to check on prices and weights...,
before joining the bidding war for the best quality flatfish like Dover soles...
plaice...
lemon sole...
monk tails...
and Dory...
outside the market it looks like the freshening weather has forced the Godfather of mackerel handling to knock it on the head early and share a few words of frustration with a younger protegé and market boss young Mr Cripps...
who will be glad to see the back of these red mullet...
big red tub gurnards...
and stacked flats with floor space at a premium yet again this morning...
thanks to all the inshore trawlers like the Elisabeth Veronique making a landing...
forklifts whisk fish away past the yet-to-land netter, Karen of Ladram...
as the Rowse crabber takes a drying out berth for a tide (that's 12 hours to a landlubber)...
looking out between potters and netters...
you can see why Dennis decided not to venture out through the gaps in his 16' punt this morning - one of those days when it's "better to be in looking out than out looking in" as the old saying goes.