2 a week and it's 2 in one night ce soir

Check your gills! look for blood red gills on your fresh fish......
a good filleting knife with a flexible blade makes the job of filleting much easier, if not get your fishmonger to do the job for you.....
the trick is to keep the blade tight against the backbone......
back to the salmon steaks, a splash of Japanese shao xing rice wine, parsley, one sage leaf and a few basil leaves, cover the bowl and give a couple of minutes in the microwave....
back at the harbour tuna man Quentin takes the fast boat out for a spin.....
in Penzance Dry Dock the Rix Harrier is being worked on well into the night....
replacing the Cornishman on the hard, Pete Elsworth supervises the James R H as she goes against the quay.....
and several tons of steel weights are dropped on the sidedeck to lean her into the quay, closely watched by Billy Stevenson, who despite having retired from 'active service' likes to keep an eye on proceedings with the family's fleet of beamers......
the stern rope is made good......
a disconsolate Edwin shares the prices from his landing docket from the previous day with Mike Mahon and hopes the prices will be better tomorrow.....
not that these lesser spotted dogfish will make Mike rich but they will keep the crab pots baited....
a cold start for the big motor on the Cornishman as she leaves the quay at high water on the top of the tide.

There's a whole lotta painting goin' on!

The immaculate Sapphire is almost ready to go back to sea, with crude oil at around $80 a barrel, some $50 less than at the start of her refit......
Drew and boys will also benefit from the reduced cost of fuel aboard the CKS, also in the middle of an extensive refit and paint job.....
back in the harbour, the dive support vessel, Mair from north of the border.....
how to shorten the main beam chains on a beamer when working on the gear in the harbour.....
the stern of the netter Ben My Chree showing tiers of net in the pound; to the right the headline with floats, to the left the footrope, a man stands in each corner, pulls on either the headline or the footrope to spread the net evenly around the pound.....
that man Alistair looks cheerful as the work aboard the crabber moves on....
there's plenty of shotblast gravel waiting to be used both inside the shelter, hence the protective tarpaulin.....
and out on the hull of the Emma Louise.....
the Polaris, a quality German yacht registered in Berlin......
whose skipper spends some time asking questions of the everhelpful Grimmy Mike Mahon.....
who netted this 10lb lobster.......
all lit up and nobody at home yet, space to let in Penzance Dock basin.

Don't be selfish - eat more shellfish!

Next month will see the annual Falmouth Oyster Festival tickle the palates of anyone lucky enough to sample these pearls of Falmouth estuarine waters. Unique to this country, a fleet of traditional sail boats using hand-hauled dredges work the shallow river waters around Falmouth. Wether these succulent taste bombs contribute to prowess of one kind or another is, as ever, subject to conjecture. The boats are in many cases ancient and, of course, entirely free of concerns over the cost of fuel as the licence they fish with demands that they are soley sail powered.

Silver Dawn at silver dusk

Kilkenny annihilate Waterford in the all-Ireland hurling final......
it must be a big spring tide to get the Cornishman up this far on the hard, if you get this wrong you'll be be-neaped and unable to float again until the next higher tide which may be months away!......
in the heavy evening drizzle the Crystal Sea II takes ice for the next trip.....
right colour, wrong time of day.

Falmouth Tall Ships - the Funchal 500

Through the gaps spent a day at sea off Falmouth on Saturday enjoying the spectacular spectacle that is the Falmouth Tallships Race, last seen in Falmouth ten years ago!

This year the fleet, including the Mir and other giant square riggers headed off for the Portuguese coast and Ilhavo. Organisers could not have dared hope for the weather conditions the boats enjoyed - with a mix of sun, cloud and an almost non-existent Nor' Westerly breeze, it meant that the stars of the show, the giant square riggers could un-furl their sails close inshore for the thousands sat on Pendennis Head and other vantage points.

Enjoy the gallery of images shot in and around Falmouth Bay, courtesy of skipper Phil Lockley aboard the Falmouth fishing boat Amanda J.

There is still a chance to purchase limited edition hoodies and T-shirts from SeaSalt clothing who were the official clothing suppliers for the event.

Twilight at Twilight

Penzance Dry Dock Company is being ket busy with the small tanker, Rix Harrier....
Newlyn's Fisherman's Cafe provides solid sustenance for its customers......
waiting on the quayside all the gear for a new set of trawls....
for the beamer Twilight whose deck is covered with the chain links and shackles required to build a new set of chain mats.....
end of another tide and the Harvest Reaper heads back to tier after landing.

Food for thought for the tuna boys while they are away!

Hopefully the tuna fleet, Nova Spero and Charisma aren't having to contend with this situation - years ago fishing off the Scillies was probably a rsiky business, today it is places like Somalia that provide fishermen with dangers in addition to the everyday hazards they are likely to encounter!