Windcat 17

Loacl residents will be looking at the refurbished Ross Bridge, resplendent in shades of turquoise, and wondering when it will swing back into place, thereby alleviating the daily traffic chaos it has inflicted on the town.......
part of a twice daily ritual, the gate in Penzance Wet Dock is lowered, roughly an hour and a half before high water......
your favourite local food store, the CO-OP wagon brings in fresh supplies bound for Scilly......
all aboard the Scillonian III, just hours away from making her first trip of the season.....
over in Newlyn someone has arrived with a strong desire to maintain a clean ship.....
and take fuel - No17 is the latest from the production line at Wincat, the windfarm service vessel people from Fleetwood....... these highly specialised vessels service a number of key windfarms in the UK and Europe.......
with this, the latest example, bound for Holland.

All aboard the Titanic

'Through the Gaps' takes time out to visit the National Maritime Museum Cornwall - though not so much a museum on the grand lines of its parent at Greenwich or other classic museums like the V&A, the Falmouth sibling does put on themed exhibitions and supports talks and workshops on maritime related subjects. The current exhibition would be more accurately described as a look at the White Star Line and its fleet of trans-oceanic liners, with its most famous being the unsinkable that sank - the Titanic - given that most relics associated with that ship are still on the seabed....
a nice touch, once you have paid £8.50 for an adult ticket (which then allows for any number of free visits in the same year :-), is the facsimile boarding pass....

complete with the details of a genuine passenger or crew member of the day - at the end of the tour you get the chance to see if you were one of the lucky survivors by checking your allotted name off against the passenger or crew list that records your fate - there is a direct connection with the ill-fated ship in Newlyn, Nigel 'Rockets' Richards' father, George Richards (also a fisherman), was a survivor then aged 10 months, Nigel (seen here doing his own version of Leonardo DeCaprio) currently crews on the beamer George Johannes, there is a chance to hear the record voice of his grandmother relating her experience of the event that shook the maritime world on the 14th April 1912 - the museum asked for contributions from local people with connections to the sinking - go to this page and search for the word 'Titanic' and you will see details of another survivor who emigrated - along with more details here from the West Briton of the day......
on such a chilly day it was good to be inside and looking out......
as with most significant projects in the Duchy, a member of the Royal Family had the honour of opening for business back in 1999.....
the unmistakable funnel arrangement of the Titanic greets visitors in the entrance.....
one excellent permanent feature of the museum is the remotely controlled sailboat tank where you can master sailing a yacht through varying wind strengths in order to navigate your way around a series of buoys and hazards.......
visit over, now time to head for Harvey's Wharf, the nearest restaurant alongside the museum and enjoy a range of local fish with superb views across the harbour waters and out to Carrick Roads where you can catch pleaure craft and huge commercial shipping (in red behind the letter 'A') movements from the comfort and warmth of your seat.....

after a quiet drink in the bar area, a table was taken at the far end of the restaurant, a delicious salt cod fishcake starter with rhubarb based compote set the tone for the rest of the meal.....
in surroundings that echo the interior of a luxury liner's dining room, much in keeping with the White Star's, Honour and Glory exhibition next door.....
with a range of intimate or open eating tables throughout, the restaurant melds each section together with wavy contours on walls, fixtures and fittings....
and, a nice touch for those who like to see what they are eating, on ice and in view of the open kitchen, the evening's selection of haddock, hake, whole lemon and monk fillets ready for the pot....

obviously a popular place - as more early evening visitors make a dash for the warmth of the bar and restaurant.

Zac takes her for a spin

Complementing the Jubilee Poll opposite, one of Penzance's classic pieces of Art Deco architecture and looking resplendent in the evening sun, The Yacht Inn provides fine food, fine ale and a friendly 'book' that takes place every evening based on the time the Scillonian III is first sighted rounding Penlee Point - (roughly 10 minutes to 7pm)......rumour has it the ghost of Hercule Poirot can be sometimes be seen on that balcony.....
back in place after a major refit, the now turquoise Ross Bridge has a rash of hard hats all over it making final checks to its operational status.....
by air or by sea, a trip to Scilly has something for everyone......
a mini gin-palace, not the sort of vessel you would normally want tied up alongside your traditional working boat......
lighting up time down the old quay, no longer the job of the harbour staff to light all the harbour lamps of an evening - further up the coast, Mevagissey can boast being the first place in England to have electric street lighting, not a lot of people know that.......
although heavy showers are the order of the day as the sun drops below the yardarm.....
always a temptation of man's to leave a commemorative mark......
the IRB gets put through her paces with Zac at the helm......
guess the boat.......
some will be hoping there's a pot of gold at the foot of the rainbow.

Not for a long time

The Lisa Jacqueline (ex Hubenada) has left the quay for the slip ending the longest period of slip in-activity in living memory - not many years ago it was not unusual to see a boat go up and down the slip on the same tide such was the demand.....
the harbours 'mini-slip', space on the end of the New Quay alongside the crane allows punts the chance for a quick bottom scrub or other repair work, today it's the turn of Pete Downing's Sea-Jay seen being carefully chocked.....
the Silver Dawn is undergoing a hauling system modification on a grans scale, skipper Hosking making some final checks on the now removed Spencer Carter N10 hauler on the quay.....
back in town again, the Three Sons from Brixham......
two more visitors cast their light on the harbour waters.....
wandering the perimeter of the Penlee Marin development, a security guard checks out the blooming daffodils.

Its a long steam from Icleandic grounds - but worth it says Icelandic trawler owner.

For the first time in ten years Icelandic fishing boats have landed fresh catches to Grimsby market on the East coast. You may spot the rural corespondent's (obviously a landlubber) error in the story where the boat is described as being 50 ft in length when, judging by the size of the wheelhouse and the containers being landed in the video, she is more likely to be at least 50 metres! - see the video report here.

Petition to No10 in support of Fishermen prosecuted in the UK

Anyone with access to a computer can visit the petition pages in the Governement's website. If you wish to support the petition outlined below started by Darren Rosson, follow the link:

DEFRA have recently prosecuted Fishermen in both Scotland
and Cornwall for landing fish in contravention of their quotas or licences. They have received fines which are not commensurate to the 'crime' when compared to career criminals who seem to get away with very little sanction. However once the fines have been imposed the authorities have pursued the families stripping assets using the proceeds of Crime Act. The act is on the statute to strip assets from criminals who have amassed their wealth from criminal acts. Fishermen have amassed what little they have through work in the most harsh of
conditions!!!!

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/FishermenPOCA/#detail

Spring fishing

Captain Leach and son Gary head the Achieve back into a berth after landing their trip to the market.....
view of the stern arrangement on the Plymouth multi-pupose trawler/beamer Admiral Gordon......
all the netters, like the Ajax here, will be hoping for good prices this morning with big trips of superb quality hake.....
evidence of the time of year in the shape of mixed boxes of hard and soft roes.....
Robert George from Seafood Cornwall casts an eye over 61/2 tins of poillack from Kenny Downing's Golden Harvest......
a fine shot of ray from the inshore fleet runs the length of the chill room ....
while Edwin keeps the head office of Ocean Fish up to date with the big gill-net trips on the market.....
it takes time to ice over nearly 7 tons of fish from the Ajax....
in the scrap bay someone has had enough of their on-board exercise machine....
back go the boxes on the crabber Pen Glas.....
seems there are some keeping the landlady on her toes in the Star.....
while she promises to keep the punters happy by fixing prices till the end of the month, well all except the Stella for some reason!