Harbour box spotted in new job

Spotted over in sunny St Ives at the weekend, a harbour box moonlighting in one of the most popular uses.....
here are three boxes doing their day-job as intended, there's a steady of flow of mackerel in the Bay at the moment, size mix not too bad it seems...
just gone midnight and back in port after 36 hours, skipper Roger on the deck of the Nantewan and mate Roger coming up from the fishroom.....
the Dom Bosco heads away from the market back to a quay berth...
while a few gery mullet wait to be auctioned on the Monday morning market.

Divers back to the mainland

Two old Sputniks and the Twilight are up ahead...
dive boat Evert Martje is back in port after a week over in Scilly...
heading back to Penzance Dock, the ex-MFV Rhos Na Rioch

More beamers in than out

Out in the Bay, George on the Chickadee heads back in to the harbour ahead of the Aaltje Adriante......
and then pushes her into berth....

work continues on the Calisha's gear....
as another beamer arrives, this time its the Trevessa IV......
you don't get better spiders than those from the punt men, like Chris Morley....
backs into their work, still hard at it on the Calisha and yet another use for those ubiquitous green boxes.....
nealry four foot of seaweed growth coming off the bow of the Ripple - after six months in the water it appears that tar is totally ineffective as an anti-fouling treatment for wooden hulls - still years ago many of these boats were drawn up on the beach and dried out often.....
view from the wheelhouse aft on the Seafood Cornwall Quality Award winning Nantewan just before the guys head off to sea...
the Nellie heads back in to land
brand new warps head off down the quay from the drum.

Penzance pirate comes ashore

There's some major gear overhaulin' going on at the end of the Calisha's derrick....
and a stack of new dredges waiting on the quayside....
some say this is the sign of the mad axe man of Penzance, others just say, "Hi Jeremy"....
the 'Pirate of Penzance' is on the dockside for some annual TLC below the waterline...
over the other side of the dock is the barge recently towed to the harbour.

Diving charter ready to sail

A fresh gaggle (not sure what the collective noun is) of divers make ready to sail for a week at sea off the Scillies on the ex-Jersey beamer, Evert Martje...
New wheels welded up aboard the Sapphire are ready to roll...
while the St Geoge still has scaffolding around the funnel and rigging, gone are the days of guys hanging by their fingertips, paint pot and brush gripped firmly between their teeth!.....
PZ85's paint job is beginning to brighten up the end of the quay on an otherwise dull day...
back to his berth on the pontoons heads Mr Thomas after an afternoon on the mackerel....
on the Imogen, Roger Nowell Jnr, lands a quality trip of trawl fish to the waiting Iceberg lorry before it gets sold on Plymouth market....
another mackerel punt passes as the Crystal Sea II makes her way up the harbour.....
and into the ice berth.....
there's always time for a cuppa on the Cornishman...
more holes appear in the sides Emma Louise as she gets the final fitments for her new vivier tank.....
on the Calisha from Peterhead the dredges get the hot-metal treatment...
a big step for man and a helluva stretch for shorter legs, though these are preferable to long legs at sea as they provide a far less stable platform and are the cause of numerous headaches for thier owners...
in through the gaps, the Intuition after a day on the pots....

plenty of spare tooth-bars aboard the dredger.

Day-hauling, landing at the market

The Sapphire is getting a new set of wheels on her beams...

on the deck of the Two Boys, Twinkle sets about gutting the last haul against the market after it freshened up quickly in the Bay...

seems there is plenty of haddock on the ground Nor'West of the Wolf still....

aboard the Shiralee, in a move to save fuel, Mr Page decided to target pollack with hand-lines for the day, a sure sign that fuel-price is now becoming a crisis for the industry as a whole and not just because it affects the bigger boats that burn thousands of pounds worth of fuel a day at sea.

La Conchee faut dix ton de glace

Parked up at Wherry Town on the prom, another colourful fish trailor.....
this time, refrigerated transport from SAL in Grimsby....

Harbour Master Andrew chews the fat briefly with Grimmy Mike over the rising cost of fuel....La Conchee from Guilvenec, Brittany on her way into the ice berth.....
opposite which lays the Emma Louise looking more like a crabber every day....

La Conchee taking ice.....

under the watchful eye of Andrew wearing his other hat, that of French Consulatein the area ...

meanwhile, astern of the ice berth, Twinkle and Tristan put the mended gear back aboard the Two Boys
down the end of the new Quay, a sea of derricks from the biggest of the WS&S fleet
out in the bay there is an increase in the amount of summer trade, a small tug and dredging barge are accompanied by a regular visiting dive boat.