Shiralee at sea.

Two days worth of fishing captured by AIS. The inshore trawler Shiralee's track can be seen starting from the end of Sunday's tow west of the Longships, bound in to Newlyn then back out again on Monday for a day spent towing the ground nor'west of the Wolf before heading for home once again.

It's World Fisheries Day today.

 Top quality fish from the Shiralee .........

after a day fishing nor'west of the Wolf and it looks like she's headed back out to the same place this morning......... 

 along with most of the inshore fleet........

 with the handliners getting good landings of bass ashore after a weekend of fine weather.......

 stacked five boxes high in 100kg stacks, hake from the Ajax........

 fills the western end of the market.........

 with a good run of bigger fish laid out for the buyers this morning........

 destined for good homes, a box of monk cheeks will no doubt end up on the slab of a London fishmonger.........

 St Ives cat, Dignity leaves her berth on the pontoons.......

exercise time for some before the sun puts in an appearance.

Ajax down by the head - binge workers at it again.

Ajax AH32 alongside the fish market with her white 'moustache' almost submerged.

Fishing over 100 miles west of Newlyn, 50 stone the first day, 60 the second, 700 the third and 750 on the fourth - the binge workers went in for binge fishing this trip all right - landing to commence at 11pm this evening for Monday morning's market.

Hairy Bikers - Summer Pudding update.

Found at a Lane's auction many years ago.......

 a feast of never-ending nuggets of culibary information straight from the heart of Victorian England.......

on BBC 2 this morning, the Hairy Bikers own variation on the classic British Summer Pudding - where the guys quote the earliest reference they could find from 1902 - and here is a recipe with the same name taken from a book published in 1892!.........

 along with all the tips and tricks so fondly used by the daring duo.......

 and the basics are covered too.......

with some solid guidance for turning out that perfect steak - and if you want to browse the entire book, see below.........you won't be able to put it down!

Penzance harbour - the future!

PENZANCE HARBOUR

THE FUTURE IS IN YOUR HANDS

Here's a chance to have your say and get involved with the most important maritime development in Penwith since some bright spark at PDC (now well defunct) in a stroke of pure genius saw fit to fill in the existing harbour to make a car park - probably the only harbour in the world to have taken that course of action.


Head over to this new web site and check out the ways in which you could make a difference - http://www.pzharbourfutures.org/

Click on the map to see more information.

For an example of what can be achieved with a little foresight and taking advantage of EU funding, look no further than the tiny Breton port of Saint Quai Portrieux - a town much smaller than Penzance but with a much bigger vision of how things should be when you have been gifted a natural harbour to start with - rather than fill in the existing harbour to make a car and lorry park, the French built two new breakwaters and created a huge port for the local fishing fleet - all of 5 boats over 10m! and a 550 berth yacht marina when before there were any yachts using the port at all!

Blogging from the Cefas Endeavour.

Good to see regular posts from the decks of the Cefas research ship Endeavour over the last week as she completes the first half of her Irish Sea Groundfish survey. Some of the on board research scientists have been explaining in more detail the projects they are working on using the fish caught. Of possible significance to the local fleet is the news that the Endeavour has seen anchovy in some of the hauls. For one day the boat was joined by the huge Irish research vessel Celtic Explorer and the two boats took the opportunity to record data while making comparative tows.

As per the last blog entry, the Cefas Endeavour is seen here on the AIS from VesselTracker making her way towards Rocky Island as she leaves Cork and heads for open water to begin the second half of her survey - expect an update from the blog later this evening. Meanwhile, the Irish research ship Celtic Explorer continues her survey work which runs from November 12th to December 16th.

The latest track from the Celtic Explorer can be seen here along with the Endevaour just leaving the entrance to Cork harbour.

Wave action.

 Waves shape the coastline.......

 and are bread and butter for VersaDock, the new drying berth created for the RNLI's inshore boat in Newlyn........

 close-up of the flexible docking system which will help keep the IRB weed-free......

looks like a good drying day aboard the Rachel & Louise.........

while Chris I&II make light work over-ending a net.......

level-pegging with a few weeks of the year to go.