Heavy seas.

 The harbour suffered its first casualty of the year when this pint sank in her pontoon berth......

 bits like the SAAB gearbox and engine might be worth salvaging......

 along with the hull which suffered some damage to the gunnel.......

 skipper Archie's back in town with the Admiral Gordon for a few days......

 as the harbour lights crew get busy taking down the tree outside the Mission.......

 which will be the subject of much debate this year as the RNMDSF look certain to go through with their plans to close the historic building.........

 another casualty of the weather lays on the shingle beach......

 and the prom is not without damage from the ravishes of a heavy overnight swell which swept the Bay.....

 covering the front in stones and weed.......

from a turbulent sea.

Black is gold as Newlyn's port records tumbles three times!

Black turns to gold for the big beamer firm Stevensons as three boats take it in turns to topple the port record in a week - after the previous record held by another of their boats, the Aaltje Adriante or AA as she is known had survived for nearly twenty years.......

on the first market for the new year it was the turn of the Twilight III to trash the current £50,000 port record on Tuesday at £51,500.........

the following day, skipper Don Liddicoat on the Filadelfia filled his boots with black gold for £52,000 and, for a few days only, basked in the glory of being top dog, that was until Friday's auction.........

when the market floor was awash with liquid gold from the boxes of the Cornishman and her landing which saw the record fall for a third time in the week with a grossing of £52,800!

Black Friday again.

Monk fish tails speed their way down the grading machine........

these big tub gurnards will surely end up on the menu of a top London fish restaurant over the weekend......

along with these squid........

back to the black at speed........

with so many being landed the market is short of tubs to handle the cuttles.......

there's a good run of reds about at the moment........

to compliment the abundant monk landings.......

over the spring tide most of the netters are in port.......

as is the Crystal Sea II which landed yesterday.......

further up the quay the Algrie has slipped into a repair berth.......

with relatively calm winds the sardine boats managed to put some fish ashore......

into the back of the waiting transport.........

while the job of clearing up the sepia stained boxes begins in earnest........

there's a boat with a potential new owner out there somewhere!

Falmouth Coastguard co-ordinates yacht rescue off Cape Horn.

Once again Falmouth Coastguard in its role as international incident coordinator is in volved in a rescue attempt to help a solo yacthswoman aboard her yacht in bad weather off Cape Horn. In addition to a broken boom and rudder the yacht has a fouled propeller. Assistance from a Chilean fishing boat, thought to be the nearest vessel, is being coordinated by Falmouth CG via American and Chilean Coastguards.

Yachtswoman Jean Socrates, has been sailing her boat Nereida singlehanded for some time now on an epic solo circumnavigation of the globe. Her solo, nonstop circumnavigation - originally started 10th October 2009 from Lanzarote, Canaries... to be re-started in October 2010 from Victoria, B.C.



Update: The Chilean fishing vessel now has the boat under tow and is heading for Puerto Williams, in Tierra del Feugo with Falmouth Coastguard providing invaluable assistance liaising between the coastguards of three countries and amateur radio hams.

Frozen sea - 400 waiting to be rescued.

Off the East coast of Russia in the Sea of Okhotsk, where the temperature is around -22ºC, three fishing vessels are trapped in ice as the sea freezes over.  Read the full story story here.

The crews are not thought to be in any immediate danger with enough supplies to last them for weeks - they have already been trapped since last year.

Eighty years ago the Grimsby trawler Sargon became stuck in ice - and re-appeared back in her home port over four months later having ben picked up by a German trawler and towed to Iceland - this was well after she had been pronounced lost at sea with all hands - one of the wives had even re-married in the meantime! She was eventually lost in 1948, capsizing off Iceland after icing up.

Reports over global warming have used the Sea of Oshotsk as a sort of barometer indicating changes in global warming - with ironic results!

A somewhat cloudy partial eclipse heralds in the first market of 2011.

There's a myriad of grading options for the machine graders.......

busy on good supplies of monk this morning......

up to their elbows in ink......

as another bumper landing of cuttles passes through giving the boys aboard the Twilight III a chance of breaking the port record this morning.......

a handful of netters pushed a weak neap tide for some relatively slack fishing, though strong prices should help bring a little festive spirit back into the proceedings.......

especially for big quality fish like this turbot, which in the week preceding the Christmas break almost touched £30 a kilo! -  that's well over £150 for the beauty in this box for the boys aboard the Sapphire -handsomely rewarded having elected to fish over the New Year ........

not to be outdone by the big beamer fleet, the Sea Spray has opted to fish for monk and put some cracking tails ashore......

a good hour before the sunrise a few of the harbour Christmas lights are still in action, though the weather conditions for a partial eclipse look none too promising with a good deal of heavy cloud in the sky.

Misty Monday morning.

Mounts Bay ushers in a tranquil scene, no wind, no rain, no snow on the first Monday morning of the New Year ........

 giving the solitary bird watcher fine spotting conditions probably on the lookout for a couple of young Eider ducks and a pale-bellied Brent Goose which the local gulls have taken to harassing - daily sightings are reported on the CornwallBird Watching Society's site here .........

the recent heavy swells have carved an unusual pattern in the seaweed on the beach at Newlyn Green.......

 time off for those who had a busy break.......

including the netting fleet over the big tide.........

always keen to recycle, a set of rail track clamps now used as 'end stones'.......

looking for a new home this year, the Wayfinder......

looks like there's a caulking job to do on the Anthony.......

also washed up by the heavy swell, a couple of inshore pots that have seen better days......

a plume of diesel smoke fills the air as a beamer fires up her main engine.......

looks like some sort of coble converted to a motorsailor.