Over the half-way line

A 'landmark' as it were in the voyage of the Spirit of Mystery - she has made it across the equator over the weekend! Read up on the celebrations aboard the boat from their web log.

There's more to it than just the fish and quotas

Patriotic and moralistic quota activist Grimmy Mike (Mike Mahon) makes the papers with a supportive article from Telegraph journalist Christopher Booker. The article provoked plenty of support and a number of interesting comments from online readers that reflect on the wider issues of sovereignty and control with regard to our 'Island State' and Europe.

Wet, wintry wind.

With a fresh coat of white gloss given a dousing by yet another heavy shower, the Dom Bosco's new cranning pole waits on the qiuayside to be fitted.....
while the rest of the country suffers snow showers and much colder temperatures it's just plain wet 'n windy her in the far South West of the UK.....
the obligatory 'barn door' skate from the Gary M's netting trip.....
one of a very mixed bag of fish on the Monday morning market.....
with a steady supply of boxes heading to the box washing department.....
making his way aboard the Intuition for a chat with skipper Alan Nudd.....
many of the bigger vessels make use of 3D seabed ground discrimination plotters in the wheelhouse.....
back in port after her maiden voyage, the Emma Louise has plenty of water powering through her vivier tanks to aerate the water....
evidence of the fresh Northerly breeze......
with a heavy swell running even the big scallopers like this TN trwler from Troon cannot work...
late Sunday afternoon and the Carol H heads......
in Through the Gaps......
dark enough this evening as lighting up time arrives quickly under heavy skies....

and a reminder to all those who drive along the front that Ross Bridge will be closed for three months early next year.

Fish farming

Dressed for the damp conditions despite the forecast predicting a quiet day, three anglers make their way to the quay.....
the Crystal Sea II has had a week's worth of fishing with her new trawl doors.......
stood in the drizzle over-ending and cleaning the net, Saturday morning chores aboard the Boy Brax......
Through the Gaps appears to have stumbled across a new enterprise in fish farming.....
time for Gary and the old man to get the brushes out for a bottom scrub on the Achieve.....
the Twilight heads in through the gaps after towing the Billy Rowney in....
after she became 'mopped up' with what appears to be a French trawl in her prop.....
with a fresh breeze blowing down the harbour it takes three of the harbour 'tug' boats to put her safely in tier.

Falfish 22 OceanFish 1

FalFish forklift makes quick work of loading the FalFish wagon with another night's heavy sardine fishing......
some serious scaffolding surrounds the upperdeck of the Plymouth Explorer....

with some scuffly weather overnight both the Intuition and the Dom Bosco are in and landed which leaves the Emma Louise back at sea after sorting her 240v genny probs out.

Emma's maiden

It's all smiles aboard the Emma Louise as the crew prepare to cast off the ropes.....
and see skipper Mike Rowse take her out through the gaps on their maiden voyage, if all goes well we won't see her in the port for a few days (pictures courtesy of Emma!).....
over in Penzance, it appears the proposed re-development between the back of the dock area and the town's famous art deco bathing pool is showing signs of action with the appearance of a substrate core drilling rig.....
out in the Bay, a coaster rides to anchor in a fresh Northerly breeze......
read the Precious Lives Appeal entry details here and email the gallery for your.....
chance to win a hamper full of Cornish goodies at Babcock's gallery.

Prime

One of the Manx Ranger's pelagic trawls on ther quay - without a footrope to give the trawl some obvious structure different coloured nylon is used to identify which wing or section is which when mending.... a good mix of prime fish on the market this morning, from the biggest and smallest in the fleet, here one of several boxes of monk tails from the beamer Billy Rowney......
not sure if Rose knows she has one of her boxes in Newlyn....
more prime with a collection of JDs.....
and a run of line pollack bear the mark of top quality 'line caught' tags.....
for some fish sorting and grading fish are still done manually.....

some move tooo quickly to be caught in action on film......