Through the Gaps! - Newlyn Fishing News Cornwall UK fish commercial fishing fish cooking and art

Friday 17 June 2011

Padstow Pirate

WALKING the Cornish stretch of England's 1015km South West Coast Path in 1987, I reached Padstow village, where a ferry is required to cross the Camel River. It was market day and stalls crowded the quay. A local's outstretched hand pointed to a ferry sign where stone steps led to a smallish wooden boat.

I plonked my backpack against a bulkhead and joined the other commuters. A leathery, wiry Cornishman, revealed as the skipper, satisfied himself there were no more passengers and we motored off, bon-voyaged by discordant seagulls. I relaxed, confident of rejoining the trail before the sun dipped near the yardarm.

We took a diagonal route. I assumed the skipper was navigating obstacles and would soon tack toward the opposite bank, but he continued in a beeline to the river mouth. As the headland loomed, the knot of uncertainty tightened in my stomach. I turned to a passenger and asked, "This is the ferry, isn't it?".

"No. It's a fishing trip . . . looking for mackerel."

After initial surprise, I saw the humour in my mistake, but this was an inconvenient diversion. I approached the skipper, expecting sympathetic ears and possible transportation to the other side.

"Too bad," he blurted before I had time to properly explain myself. "You're on board and going fishing."

His accent reminded me of the stereotypical Disneyland pirate.

"Didn't you see my backpack?"

"Plenty of people bring packs with them."

Yes, I thought, those who think they're catching a ferry.

"You are paying the four quid, and that's it."

I returned to my seat and went with the flow, which in this case meant a couple of kilometres out to sea.

I had no interest in fishing, but the skipper's sidekick - his son, about 11 years old - offered me line and bait, and I acquiesced.

The weather was fine, the sea calm and the shoreline provided a pictorial backdrop. The fishing was surprisingly easy and the mackerel plentiful.

The South West Coast Path originally served as a route for the coastguard in pursuit of smugglers. A deceptively hilly trail, one calculation has it that walking its length is the equivalent of climbing Everest's height four times.

There is accommodation along the route, but I would have to camp this night. We continued rolling in mackerel like tuna fishermen, and the skipper's son gathered the catch. Eventually we pulled up anchor. The son divvied up the fish and asked how many I caught. I had no idea, so said: "Twenty." He wrapped them in newspaper. The skipper softened and complimented me on my catch. Then we returned to shore.

Lugging 20 mackerel in a backpack would quickly become a smelly proposition and I had no desire to be Pied Piper to a flock of seagulls. I approached a local restaurant in hope of a sale.

"How much do you want?" I was asked. I told them four quid would do it. Done deal.

I returned to searching for the ferry departure point and discovered it several hundred metres downstream from the sign. On a sandbar.

Story courtesy of Paul Spinks writing in that great antipodean rag, The Australian.

Newlyn Harbour time-lapse movie.

With a few tweaks made to the webcam software that streams images over the web, a time-lapse movie can be created. In this instance, the first twenty four hours of coverage captured dramatic looking skies and the spectacle of the Govenek of Ladram coming down the slip and the Billy Rowney going up.

FFFFFoul Friday

With the Solo Sails' wencam prodviding a new window on the world of Newlyn harbour, there's a distinctly unseasonal air to the weather today summed up in one word, FOUL!

Thursday 16 June 2011

Primary School pupils from Launceston enthused by fact finding visit to Newlyn

Sixty-two pupils from St Catherine's Church of England Primary School, Launceston, visited Newlyn last week on a fact finding visit organised by Seafood Cornwall Training and sponsored by local fish processor Falfish. The visit was designed to complement classroom studies and bring pupils face to face with where the fish they eat, comes from. The children have been learning all about fishing and seafood as part of the ‘Fish for the Future' unit, developed by Sense of Place.

School children from St Catherine's Primary School with (back right to left) Sarah Crosbie (Seafood Cornwall Training); Mark Greet (Falfish); Andy Wheeler (Cornish Fish producers Organisation) and Patch Harvey (Penlee Lifeboat Coxswain).

The pupils, from school years 2 and 4 (aged from 6 to 9 years old), toured Newlyn fish market where they put their fish identification skills to the test, met fishermen and learnt about the different types of fishing boats in the harbour. They climbed aboard the RNLI Penlee lifeboat for a lesson about safety at sea, before a visit to W Harvey and Sons shellfish tanks where they enjoyed looking at and touching all the different species of shellfish native to Cornwall. Their Sea to Plate experience was finished off appropriately with a tasty and sustainable fish and chip lunch on Newlyn Green.

Inspired by the Sense of Place ‘Fish for the Future unit', the visit was a great success and enabled the children to experience firsthand, some of the lessons they'd learnt in the classroom. It also helped bring to life how the fish they eat is caught, handled and sold.

Sarah Crosbie, Manager of Seafood Cornwall Training, who organised the visit explained, "Bringing children to Newlyn from Cornish schools means they can see, feel and breathe the fishing industry, a key part of Cornwall's heritage and economic future. We adapt each visit to suit the children's needs and if past visits are anything to go by, it's something the children won't ever forget. Thanks to the support received from Falfish we are able to offer four more school visits this term, free of charge and can assist with the associated costs."

Vanessa Currah, a Class 4 teacher at St Catherine's Church of England Primary school, Launceston added, "It was a fantastic morning, the children have been so enthusiastic about the visit. Thanks for a brilliant day, but it's the children themselves, who can tell you what they thought."

Merryn from year 4 commented, "The best thing about our trip was when I could hold the crabs and lobsters. It was really fun and interesting when my group could go on the lifeboat." While Joseph said, "The best thing about our trip to Newlyn was everything, especially when I had to be weighed on the fish market!"

Conner from year 2 commented, "My favourite part of the day was holding the Spider crab, it was very heavy!"while Lucy said, "My favourite part of the day was going in the lifeboat and looking at the engines."

Mark Greet, Falfish Managing Director, commented, "It's really great to see the children enjoy learning about the fishing industry and Newlyn harbour. I am pleased to be able to support this project which encourages Cornwall's school children to come and see what really goes on in the county's fishing industry. Who knows, some of them may be the fishermen, filleters or chefs of tomorrow."

Andy Wheeler from the Cornish Fish Producers Organisation Ltd (CFPO), showed the children around Newlyn and explained, "The CFPO is delighted to be able to support Seafood Cornwall Training in providing these school trips. Coming to Newlyn to learn about fish and fishing is a fun and exciting way for children to reinforce their learning in subject areas such as Maths, Science and Geography as well gaining a greater understanding of where the fish they eat comes from."

Fish much in the news today.

The Norse - Many of the Hull deep-sea freezer fleet fished for mackerel off Cornwall in the late 1970s and early '80s.

With what was once one of the UK's biggest fish markets (Fishgate) in Hull, closing its doors and then the news that the UK Government is aiming to source fish consumed in the public sector sustainably - fish makes a big splash across the news desks and, for a change, there's not a man-eating shark in sight!

Hull and Newlyn:

Newlyn could only look over the big stern and freezer trawlers that descended on Mount's Bay in the 70s mackerel boom - they were too big to come alongside the harbour's quays. With their ability to fish in Icelandic waters severely curtailed, the fleets of big black, blue and yellow company boats donned their mid-water gear and entered a whole new world chasing gigantic shoals of mackerel that spread themselves over the Western Approaches. Fishing in these warmer climes must have been a doddle compared to dealing with life above 60º North - the main problems stemming from having to fish within the close confines of dozens of other like-minded trawlers, Scottish mackerel pursers, local fishing boats and, not least, the busy shipping traffic off the Lizard and Land's End. These boats fished at night, when mackerel shoals lifted off the bottom and rose to the surface - the skippers would talk to one another on '69', one of the VHF working channels; two names come to mind, "Fookin' 'ell 'oward" and "Fookin' 'ell Trevor".

One of the 'old school' aboard these boats may well have been Jack Nelson, as featured in this carefully crafted cameo of life as a deep-sea fisherman by Hull writer, Russ Litten - you can almost taste the salty spray as Jack recalls his first day at sea as a 'deckie learner'!

"He’d only intended to go for a piss. But now Jack Nelson was spread-eagled on the deck of the St Arcadius, smashed under the steering quadrant by a heavy wave of water that had crashed over the side, his barely shaved fifteen year old face inches away from being chewed off by grinding gears.

He weighed up his rather limited options. Shouting for help was no good; the rain was battering the ship like machine gun fire, the wind was shrieking like a demented banshee and besides, every time he opened his mouth to scream it was flooded with salt water. His freezing fists wrapped themselves grimly around the first solid thing to hand as Jack lay there, buffeted around like a rag doll, every last ounce of decreasing strength in his body straining to avoid certain mutilation. Jack wasn’t a religious man, but praying for dear life seemed like the best idea by default. God, or Neptune, must have been listening on that squalid November night somewhere in the Northern Arctic Waters. Eventually, after what seemed several life-times, another mallet blow of water knocked his hands open and the trawler reared up in the booming waves, sending Jack sliding back down the deck towards the aft and the galley entrance, where he’d gingerly emerged, clutching his bladder, some forty minutes previously.

The cook looked up from his pan of stew as the trembling young lad collapsed through the door and started spewing up bellyfuls of salt and bile. “Jesus bloody Christ!” he yelled. “Yer little bastard! Not on my clean floor!” And, to his utter horror, Jack found himself booted back out onto the deck, the galley door slammed firmly shut behind him, the cook’s curses ringing in his already pounding eardrums.

Azab 2011 - and Solo Sails has a vested interest.

Two yachts currently competing in the great North Atlantic Azab race - Azores and Back - have suits of sails courtesy of Solo Sails.

First to arrive in the Azores was Comedy of Errors and skipper Sam White, not being one to miss an opportuntiy to live up to the boat's name, managed to secure thrid place in Class 3 amongst for the entire race until the last section - when he took the boat the wrong way round the island - nice one Sam!

Bladerunner at the start of Azab 2011.

Second up is Bladerunner, skippered by Steve Watson and currently plagued by the lack of a crucial ingredient for a yacht race:

boat+ water-wind=no go

Bladerunner is currently 36.4 miles form the finish line and making 0.3knots - hold tight Steve

Solo Sails provides Newlyn's first live web cam - see the web cam page above!

A big thank you to Andrew 'Woody' Wood for coming up trumps and providing 'Through the Gaps' with a live web cam view of the harbour. Now, visitors can check on the web cam for an up-to-the-minute view over the marina side of the harbour and Mount's Bay beyond - plenty of sun might mean there's a big queue at Jelberts! The web cam is in their workshop above Cosalt - local fishermen will remember this as the room where 'Lofty' and the boys learned their trade servicing and repairing inflatable liferafts.

Solo Sails are a small sail loft based in Cornwall specialising in bespoke performance racing sails, durable cruising sails and custom canvaswork. Their sails are individually designed and built by us in the UK using the very best sailmaking technology and materials available.

Their fresh approach and experience with racing sails for shorthanded offshore events such as the Mini Transat, OSTAR, RB&I, AZAB, Fastnet etc. results in race sails that are light, fast and durable. Yet because they are a small loft, they can keep our prices exceptionally low at the same time as giving customers' sails their full attention.

The design, thinking and build methods are a fusion of traditional techniques with modern technology and materials, which means that they can also build durable cruising sails that will survive the toughest conditions yet still perform to a boats' full potential.

The boss, Andy Wood is always happy to have a 'no hassles' chat about a new project or repair needs, so feel free to call, email or if you are in the area pop in to see the man for a chat.