where recent heavy ground seas have scoured away the beach in front of Newlyn Green to reveal the huge franite base stones that formed a causeway between Newlyn and Wherrytown...
as the first team of groundworks engineers contracted by the Environment Agency begin to set out the area to be used...
for creating the Newlyn Coastal Research and Development Project...
the earthmoving equipment...
and protective barrier which will allow them easy access from the road down on to the beach...
to install hundreds of these pre-cast sea defences on the beach in front of the green - which might make the annual 1 mile Newlyn to Penzance swim and the Raft race interesting events next year...
meanwhile inside the harbour...
the first of nearly thirty attendees in the Penlee Lifeboat station enjoyed tea, coffee and home-baked cakes re-creating a typical Saturday morning get together in the old Mission building, as usual, huge amounts of fish were caught and lost but none of the lifeboat crew, some of whom who were there this morning even mentioned that...
not 12 hours previously they and jumped aboard the Ivan Ellen on a shout!
Let the press release tell their story:
"Yesterday evening HM Coastguard at Falmouth tasked the St Mary’s lifeboat The Whiteheads 17-11 to launch on service a 15-metre Newlyn based crabber, with five persons onboard, had been hit by a huge wave 22 nautical miles north of the Isles of Scilly. The vessel had lost all its navigational equipment in the wheelhouse. The ingress of water had affected the electronic management controls which meant that the engine had low revs with a top speed of 4 knots - there was a serious risk of the engine stopping.
In very poor weather conditions, NW Force 8 gusting Force 9 in a 18ft swell and rough sea conditions, The Whiteheads and her crew were quickly on scene, and after assessing the situation, started to escort the stricken crabber towards her home port of Newlyn.
HM Coastguard then tasked the Penlee Lifeboat to launch on service, asking them to rendezvous with St Mary’s lifeboat six nautical miles west of the Runnelstone. The all-weather lifeboat Ivan Ellen 17-36 launched from Newlyn at 10.30pm and proceeded towards the Runnelstone. In very rough weather conditions the lifeboat and her volunteer crew took over their escort duties at 00.15am.
As the crabber was approaching Newlyn Harbour her skipper informed Coxswain Patch Harvey that the vessel had ’no reverse’ and couldn’t go astern. At this time the wind was still gusting NW 8. In view of the safety implications of this failure, Coxswain Patch Harvey assessed the situation and made a decision to raft the crabber alongside the lifeboat. She was then brought safely through the gaps and berthed alongside.
RNLI Coxswain Patch Harvey said, “This was a six-and-a-half hour shout in extremely poor weather conditions, following on the back of Mondays equally rough service to the stricken yacht. I have complete admiration for my volunteer crew’s at Penlee. They willingly left their families and warm cosy homes, heading out into the darkness to go to the service of others. A great shout by both lifeboats and crews”.
The 15m crabber had finished her day's work and was steaming to a safe area to dodge for the night before continuing to haul her pots in the morning, Scotty, the crabber's skipper commented, "In 30 years at sea I've never been hit by such a wave, it came out of nowhere, like a wall"
electrical engineers spent the day assessing the damage and repairing the wheelhouse electrics...
meanwhile the Trevessa IV finishes off overhauling her beam trawls ready to sail...
surely it won't be long before the Dory king is back in action, what's the betting by then the boat will have a new name...
at long last the Fishermen's Arms is nearing completion...
sea coal, picked up by a trawler working handy to a WWII boat carrying coal...
all hands on deck!, good to see the lugger Happy Return...
return to Newlyn.