Black hole

More like some Transylvanian castle, the Mount appears shrouded in low cloud.....
more overlanded fish to Plymouth Market...
there rakish angle to the mizzen boom has caused raised eyebrows.....
the hard way to remove two dead batteries from the boat......
the Player's Retreat makes an early evening entrance looks for a pontoon berth....
back in town, the ex-Girl Pat III now the George Lou N is working the scallop beds off to the South'ard....
all that remains of the festivities last weekend...
it was in and out, the Inspiration will have to wait for another day before the engine finally gets to sit on the bed....
over on Newlyn Green the tents are going up as there's a sponsored camp this weekend......
the Abbey Hotel brightens up the dry dock basin of an evening.

Save with sail power

With the power of sail being prominent in Newlyn at the moment, Spirit of Mystery, Ripple, Barnabus and the Happy Return all featuring at the Fish Festival last weekend there are plenty of people discussing the possibile return of fishing with sail power. Even Grimmy Mike (see below) might just see the appeal in doing so as there are currently no catch restrictions on vessels under 10 metres!

Our friends over in St Ives are getting nearer to realising this dream with a number of projects on the go - see their 'Jumbo' website for more information and the take the chance to become a shareholder in what could potentially be a piece of history in the making.

Mike Mahon makes a stand over giving away rather than dumping fish.

Grimmy Mike makes the front pages again in his one-man campaign to combat what he sees as a crime against humanity when it comes to dumping pefectly good but over-quota fish on the seabed. Mike has been giving away fish in Newlyn to visiting yellow-wellies (in return for a donation to the Mission or RNLI) and others in defiance of the law. In a small inshore trawler like Mike's it is nigh on impossible to avoid catching certain specieas of fish as they are found all over the grounds.

Bizarrely, the South West is seeing more haddock of late than for many, many years. The current quota is 500kg (although if you read the article in the Western Morning News' website it reads 500 tons! - he should be so lucky!!). The last thing fishermen want out of this action is a modified ruling on discards. 'Through the Gaps' spoke to an inshore fisherman today who no longer records the monk heads left in his nets by foraging seals as they count against his quota - in other words fishermen are forced to mis-report and for good reason - they need to stay in business!

A Friday market full of fine fish.

Tom gets to peer through the early morning mist rolling across the fleet...
and its good to see the Ripple sporting her fully rigged sails...

although in this weather a heavy dew covers the fors'l .....

the gill net fleet still use a sail - the mizzen to steady the boat and keep it 'head to wind' when hauling the nets - wjen steaming in poor weather the mizzen helps slow down the boat's rolling movement and can be used canted to one side when steaming in a following wind to cut fuel consumption - here, skipper Phil shares a joke with two of his young crew....
small inshore boats that work from the small coves in West Cornwall

not only use the insulated tubs with slush ice aboard the boat, they then keep the fish in the tubs in order to transport them to the market in tip-top condition..... looking back over a full western end of the market with a mix of inshore and netter fish alongside 22 tubs of Cornish Sardines which are plentiful at the moment....
these quality monk cheeks will no doubt feature on the menu of several key local fish restaurants this weekend...

after weighing a decent sized Porbeagle shark the tally is marked up....

after which Mark finishes off the laying out of Carol H's fish with a topping of flake ice... a subtly striped species of gurnard from the Scorpio's landing in superb condition....

Dancing on flake ice

Admire a few early morning pirouttes from the ice man as the George Johannes takes ice....
and fuel, it's a long way down the ice chute.....
seems the Cornish Sardines have learned to spell and are trying to give us a message....
where do starboard-hand buoys go when they retire? - they are put out to grass of course.

Quality will out!

Visiting scalloper Philomena from North of the border receives a fresh batch of tooth bars from JJ Marine, Annan....
stunning looking red mullet landed by inshore boat Scorpio illustrate the quality of fish that has been held in slush ice at sea in the insulated tubs provided through Seafood Cornwall ...
quality line caught examples of the "king of the sea" as chef and fish champion, Keith Floyd always referred to them- 8 boxes of best bass will tempt the buyers this morning....
another champion of quality fish, inshore trawler skipper, Roger Nowell, builds a spare trawl for the Imogen while she waits for a new bottom bush for her rudder to come back from the workshop....
over at Wherrytown - where, over 100 years ago, a Serpentine mine ran out under the sea, work continues to re-instate fresh water from the stream trhat feeds the boating pool.

Biggest fish festival ever!

Cap'n Keast, on harmonica, serenades visitors to this year's festival as they make their way over one of the old stone bridges that allow access to Newlyn... a visitor checks out the model of the orginal Mystery that is upstairs in the Mission's museum...

one of 100 local scouts on the gates that worked so hard on the day of the festival, a big thank you goes out to them for their continued support....
here's one of dozens of volunteers on the day with important jobs like handing out free festival programmes to visitors....

there were huge numbers this year helped by the dull start to the day - many seen here gathered in front of the sound stage listening to a range of local artists - from several sessions by soul band, Heart 'n Soul to the Rum and Shrub Shanty Men and, the much acclaimed, National Youth Champions, Camborne Youth Band - a star xylophone player featured amongst their number....
large audiences watched a rolling programme of fish cooking from Seafish - spider crab courtesy of WH Harvey & Sons.....
outside, Dick Edes entertained a constant crowd with the art of withy pot making - catch Dick if you missed him at the Newquay Fish Festival in a few weeks time......
general view of the entertainment section....
some youngsters were able to make their own length of rope on the Falmouth National Maritime Museum's stand under the tutellage of their education staff....
Mithe Howell, from the Pilchard Works hands out samples for tasting - local producers sold or gave away huge quantities of fish and fish samples throughout the day - Seafoodandeatit had no problem shifting all their shellfush products including the whelks.....
delicious aromas emanated from the pots on the Little Cornish Curry Company stand and attracted a constant stream of hungry punters....
always attracting the attention of kids and adults alike, the monk or anglerfish has a 'fishing rod' over its head to attract its supper as demonstrated here on the Responsible Fishing Scheme's stand courtesy of Drew Davis and crew...
Crystal Sea II skipper and better half turn were kept busy prepping tasters on the Seafood Cornwall stand.....
while the Cornish Sardine boys were out in force this year selling 1000s of grilled sardines in baps...
Mervyn kept the kids amused with his 'mobile' school of dolphins playing alongside the boat....
later in the afternoon, fish merchant Robin Turner extracted huge sums of money for the Mission from visitors with his charismatic auctioneering style.....
main event of the day, Keith Dixon, Mission Skipper blesses the Spirit of Mystery in front of a huge crowd....
with a few words from skipper, Pete Goss.....
and when the sun eventually came out, hundreds soaked up the atmosphere outside the Dolphin and Swordfish pubs.