Child of Brittany - further inquiry into the loss.

The case looking into the loss of the Bugaled Breizh, a regular visitor to Newlyn over the years, has been re-opened again following an appeal in France. All five hands were lost when the boat was thought to have been pulled under by a submarine during a huge NATO exercise off the Lizard in 2004. Michel Douce, the boat's owner and regular skipper was ashore at the time. The original Bugaled Breizh featured in yesterday's post.

What is 40 foot long and floats?

Plenty of characters to name - taken around 1980 when the market had not long introduced plastic boxes - aluminium 'kits' can be seen - they held 10 stones (around 65kg) of fish and were used for ling, cod, ray, skate, gurnards and dogs......
although there were notices (and still are) on the market wall about not spitting, it was common practice for the buyers (and anyone else) to walk all over the boxes of fish during a sale.....
up early in the morning after a gale of wind, Fern skipper Alan Goddard looked out of his front room window overlooking Mounts Bay and on the horizon spotted an unusual shape. Reaching for the glasses he recognised the shape to be a floating container - a quick call to son Steve and they soon had the Fern steaming out across the Bay in search of their floating treasure. After securing the 40' container with a line they towed her back to Newlyn and half the village turned out to see what riches lay within - of course, it might have crossed their minds at some time that containers will only float if what lays within is buoyant enough to support all that steel - so when the container doors were finally opened it came as no great surprise to find the treasure was nothing more than several hundred thousand corks - of all shapes and sizes!

Get together - a single voice.

One of those meetings that may have a place in history has seen fisheries leaders from every sector of the UK come together and form the beginnings of a national strategy to provide a single voice in defence of fishermen and their ability to make a living from the sea around our coast. Marine Protected Areas (MAPs) are the latest in a line of increasingly restrictive measure to help protect fish stocks. Fishing representatives fear that the MAPs may have be introduced with not enough industry consultation - see a previous post.

Breton boats in Newlyn over the years.

The Loctudy stern trawler Kristel Vihan (Little Kristel) rolls her way to the gaps watched from the quay by Billy Stevenson from the comfort of his Dolomite.....
followed in by the Audierne registered Ouseau Bleu.......
the Ar Bleiz Mor passes the lighthouse in scuffly weather......
a dozen boats, mainly from Loctudy - the older 'classique' wooden boats are moored closest to the quay.....in port and tied up outside the local ex-St Guenole boat Ben My Chree, a handful of prawn trawlers, mainly from Loctudy......
while some young go-ahead Breton skippers, like Michel Douce, invested in the latest in boat design at the time - new fully shelter-decked stern trawlers with their twin net drums and working deck that extended from the stern and forar'd below the wheelhouse..... some skippers, like that of the Passereau made do with converting their sidewinder trawlers by fitting an aluminium shelterdeck and twin net drums.....

like Alain Jagoux with the Riquita seen here landing a full 15 day trip of langoustine into her home port of St Geunole......
she too was later shelterdecked though with a glass fibre shelter, the skipper's son, not wishing to follow directly in his father's footsteps finished university in Quimper and became editor of the French monthly fishing magazine Eco Peche.....
the Atlantel was another Loctudy 'classique' boat converted.....
a closer shot of the working deck aboard the Lorient registered Pearl de Jade, with skipper and two sons in the crew - a rare visit to Newlyn when she had gearbox trouble on the Smalls prawn gound, the skipper rigged a huge fores'l that she carried and had sailed her the best part of fifty miles south to the Longships when Kenny Thomas (the then Penlee lifeboat cox'n) picked her up with the Mystique and towed her to Newlyn.......
the Keriolet was one of many ex-Breton trawlers that were bought by local skippers, seen here berthed inside the Le Petit Zico, an early example of gill netting boats of which the Keriolet would one day join......
apart from trawlers and netters there were occasional crabbers like the Nymphee probably the first boat ever to be rescued by, the then, brand new Penlee lifeboat Mabel Alice......
after several hundred steel 19m shelterdecked boats replaced almost every 'classique' vessel in the Breton fleet a new generation of 24m boats, many with 3 or 4 net drums arrived on the scene - seldom seen in Newlyn during all but the poorest weather - or embarrassingly, in this instance, for Rolande, the skipper of the An Dou Bleizh waiting to float in the gaps having tried to get in without sufficient water....
the Loctudy Le Heidi skippered by Phillip was a regular vistor as he often worked closer to Newlyn for fish rather than prawns......
the second boat owned by Christian from St Guenole, the Hibernia was built for speed specifically to allow her to work the Porcupine Bank for langoustine.....
three Loctudy boats leave en-masse after a storm has passed.

MSC update

Keep up to date with news from the MSC - this week it's bass research in ICES area VIIf, East of 5˚30' West.

Bound for France despite the forecast.

All set to sort, but no sign of any whitefish on the market this morning......
thought the Lucy managed to get a 400kg shot of Cornish Sardines from the Bay working under the lee along the western shore.....
with the sky laden with heavy clouds.....
the La Servane makes a run from Newlyn despite the forecast......

Gale warnings - Issued: 2157 Tue 24 Nov

Southwesterly storm force 10, decreasing gale force 8 imminent

Shipping Forecast - Issued: 0505 Wed 25 Nov

Wind West or southwest 6 to gale 8.
Sea State Very rough occasionally high.
Weather Squally showers.
Visibility Moderate or good occasionally poor.

Despite the storm warning issued around midnight by the Met Office, La Servane leaves the harbour at first light and heads back to France to land. There had been discussions with the owners about landing her fish to Newlyn market, which would have been the first time a French boat had landed her fish for many years.

Bara an Aod heads for home

Checking out the AIS it would appear the the Guilvenec registered Bara An Aod is underway and heading south back to port.