When a quarter of a mile is too close

The AIS track for the Moonlight Venture after she left Falmouth and passed south of Start Point near to where the Amber J was fishing.

At 213m in length, coming within 400m of another much smaller vessel is close enough.

Photo courtesy of Tyrone Entwistle.

Information courtesy of VesselTracker news:

Near miss being investigated by MAIB

 The "Amber J" was in a near-miss incident with the Hongkong flagged tanker "Moonlight Venture" on Mar 24, 2012 at 8.10 p.m. The five crew on board the "Amber J - BM224" were in the collision danger zone when the tanker allegedly ignored all emergency calls from concerned the skipper and forced the fishing vessel to change course. The tanker came to within a quarter of a mile of the beam trawler. The skipper was very concerned but the tanker just ploughed on. An investigation has now been launched into the incident which happened 24 miles south west of Start Point. The Marine Accident Investigation Branch in Southampton has been informed of the incident by coastguards in Brixham. The "Moonlight Venture" with 35,711 tonnes of crude oil on board, was en route from New Orleans to Rotterdam via Falmouth where it anchored on March 25. The ship allegedly ignored calls on the sea communication and distress Channel 16.

Rick Stein opens Senara, the new training restaurant at Penwith College

On duty front of house, Professional Cookery student, Wes Mitchell is ready and waiting for the arrival of Truro and Penwith College's senior management team and governors.......

meanwhile, back in the heat of the training kitchen, Cornwall's best known chef, Rick Stein recalls his days at a local catering college and shares a few trade secrets with trainee Sinea Williams as she puts the finishing touches of her contribution of the lunchtime buffet organised for the opening ceremony........

turning up the heat, the rest of the team get prepared for the rush........ 

while second year Professional Cookery student Luke Bond, mindful of the fact that he is talking to a potential boss, talks knowledgeably while making goujons of brill covered in Panko breadcrumbs.........

the restaurant is now open to members of the public from Tuesday to Friday term time only and available for special events by appointment. At £6 for two, or £8.0 for three courses the menu is fantastic value:

Here's a sample menu:

Spring vegetable minestrone with pesto & crostini 

Cornish Sardines stuffed with peperonata agro dolce wrapped in 

Parma Ham with mixed leaves 

Insalada caprese (mozzarella, plum tomatoes, basil oil) 

Beer battered hake & fat chips with mushy peas 

Wild mushroom risotto with sage & parmesan 

Beef Bourguignon with gratin Dauphinoise 

Quiche with green bean salsa & mixed leaves 

Chocolate brownie with berries & coulis 

A selection of Cornish cheeses with chutney & oatcakes 

Cinnamon sugar doughnuts with chocolate sauce 

For morre information or the current menu, contact the booking line on 01726 335215 or email senara@penwith.ac.uk

Cefas Endeavour's Beam Trawl Survey 2012

Plenty of brittle stars with the beam trawl fitted with a blinder - who would have thought of fitting such a devious device?!!

Cefas Endeavour's South West Quarter 1 Beam Trawl Survey 2012 is underway.


They have 9 scientists on the survey; Sven, Ian, Rob, Joana, Leah, Paul, Dave , James and Jo.  James will be doing some plankton work into the late evening and helping in the fish room during the day. Cefas Endeavour is currently working in the Western English Channel. The survey is using two 4m beams, one with a blinder in (a small 20 mm net, which sits inside the cod end) and the other rigged commercially.

VesselTracker AIS - huge update!

A major upgrade to the VesselTracker web site and software suite including their mobile apps has just been launched tonight. This screen shot shows the extent of the new T-AIS receiving power giving the postion of ships hundreds of miles from the coast! - also now comes with AIS satellite data available as a global option for customers needing to track their ships around the world.......

Move over to Google Earth view and shipping in the South West can be seen as far as and even beyond the Continental Shelf!........

closer to home, the netter Ajax can be spotted north west of the Scillies amongst a big fleet of French trawlers. The new service includes a free account with a simple registration process.

Newlyn Needler - Issue 2 discovered

Pre the Big Issue and back in the day when the Min of Ag and Fish (MAFF) first began to exert control over the waves, a certain satirical magazine appeared on the top shelf of Barron's newsagents. Conceived, written, illustrated, printed and distributed by a select team of well-known Newlyn wannabe hacks, the 'Newlyn Needler' told of fishing life in Newlyn as it was or as it might have been. 

Difficult, if not impossible at times to separate fact from fiction, the magazine took an irreverent look at the characters who plied their livelihoods in and from the port. Sadly, a few of those characters that may be represented or alluded to in some of the more tame yarns are now sat in the big wheelhouse in the sky, or in Brennan's case a gazillion miles away, way beyond the stratosphere - a copy of the Newlyn Needler has come to light and is now available in digital format is therefore dedicated to their memory.

Apologies made in advance for the numerous 'in' jokes contained herein - as they used to say, you had to be there. As a footnote to the Bessy story (as described in the book, The Swordfish and the Star by Gavin Williamson); a handful of officers from HMS Bulldog, who was carrying out a hydro-graphic survey in Mounts Bay at the time, were in the Swordfish that very lunchtime and witnessed the spectacle of Bessie attempting to drink the aforementioned yard of ale while suspended from the ceiling - unknown to Bessy, the ale was spiked with a huge helping of salt - one of the officers turned to another and said, "I say skips, if it's like this on a Monday lunchtime - what's it like in here on a Friday night??!" The knight in shining armour who came to Bessie's rescue just before his crotch turned into a scene from Towering Inferno was none other than Medallion Man himself - who can now be found running Plymouth Fish Market Plymouth & Sutton Harbour - good move Peter!

Issue One will go on-line a soon as someone finds a copy!

Big Dutchman on Twitter

This was tweeted by the big Dutch boat, Orion from his Twitter account:

"First pull (haul) a 400kg plaice € 1.40 = € 560 a .600 ltr diesel € 0.70 = € 420. net € 140. Nowthe bank, crew and other costs are paid. ????"

King Koffman does cuttlefish bolognese

When the creator of BBC1's Saturday Kitchen presented the concept to host chef James Martin five years ago there's no doubt that when Martin compiled his wish list of chefs to have on the show, top of that list would have been Pierre Koffman - five years later and a dream comes true - here's a chef with no pretentions - at the Berkley Hotel's restaurant, La Tante Claire his signature dish was pig's trotter - and on Saturday's show the three-starred Michelin chef (one of only a handful in the UK) set about demonstrating a simple dish using the humble cuttlefish......... 

 the thickest part of three cuttles were separated, cleaned, squeezed together and frozen.......

 the rest, including tentacles were finely chopped........

 and sautéed in shallots and butter before adding the Bolognese sauce .......

meanwhile, the frozen cuttlefish were sliced on a meat slicer - there's a good chance that you could replicate this at home with a peeler.......

the sliced cuttlefish was then plunged in boiling water for 20 seconds and served as the 'pasta'

with the sauce on top plus garnish - for full details of the recipe and a chance to watch it for the next few days, head on over to the Saturday Kitchen web site........

meanwhile, the end of the cuttlefish season is nigh on Newlyn fish market.