Fish tails - on the final #FishyFriday of July.

Hard to believe looking across the harbour this morning that six hours before this was taken both St Marys and Sennen lifeboat were patrolling the Scillys as gusts up to 69mph caused chaos both ashore and at sea as dozens of yachts in the islands wrestled with dragged anchors and missing fenders...

meanwhile, back inside the fish market there are some fishy tails to identify...

most...

but not all...

are flatfish...

as most of the fish up for auction this morning were from...

the beam trawlers, Enterprise and Trevessa IV who target mainly flatfish...

though both would love to see more boxes of plaice this big...

every marina berth on the pontoons was taken up with sheltering yachts...

along with a dozen more moored outside of the fleet impatient to...

get the gear sorted...

before leaving the quay and heading back to sea...

which is more than enough to keep the ever-cheerful Ben smiling down from his office window as he prepares for another three-day stint working through several thousand pots...

first away was the hake netter Ajax...

closely followed by the Stelissa...

an Jed with the Louisa N...

minutes later Tristan took the Silver Dawn out through the gaps...

as young Edwin fired up the Volvo with the morning's catch safely on board... 

always good to see the boats head straight back out to sea, though they would soon be rolling heavily once they rounded the Runnelstone Buoy and felt the full force of the heavy SW swell that would be there to greet them following the passing of storm Evert.

With storm Evert on the way, keeping an eye on things.

Yesterday a full team of HMC volunteer coastguards wasted several hours fruitlessly searching for an EPIRB (Emergency Position-Indicating Radio-Beaon) that had been triggered somewhere in the vicinity of the harbour - although it had had stopped emitting its signal on the distress frequency the device was unregistered which meant that the coastguard team were left manually checking every fishing vessel and yacht moored in the harbour - to no avail - the guys were minded to say that all EPIRBS should be immediately registered to avoid unnecessary call-outs even if they are accidentally triggered...

visiting Plymouth registered sardine boat Charlotte Clare...

lays ahead of the Mayflower, Vesta and Asthore...

at the wheel, Little Graham taking care to miss those superb paintings that are now a permanent feature of the fish market wall...

like a still from an old Village People music video the crew of the good ship Enterprise make their way ...

back to the boat to land the rest of their trip...

watched over by skipper Bill Worth who narrowly escaped being caught with a smile on his face...

watching the antics of these two on deck...

up the quay the boys on the Trevessa IV continue to repair the port side trawl, she as with the rest of the fleet, have delayed sailing today by a forecast which is giving Storm Force 10 later tonight as the first (and hopefully the last) named storm for the summer passes through...

causing the ever-vigilant harbour staff to make a quick check of moorings and fenders around the harbour to ensure that Evert does not lead to any damage being incurred.

 

Nine stunning paintings adorn the fish market in Newlyn.

It started with a trip on the Karen of Ladram with skipper Sid Porter showing local artist Henrietta Graham over the boat shortly before she made a week-long trip hake netting 80 miles west of Scilly...

from there she made sketches and studies of the crew at work while the boat fished for hake...

then a series of huge oil paintings followed depicting the diverse range of activities needed to keep the fleet at sea...

in the studio she was watched over by a portrait of her one-time mentor Ken Howard working on the action down in the fishroom when landing...

to putting finishing touches to 'Landing Cornish Sardines at night'

after the finished artworks were photographed by local photographer Steve Tanner they were then transferred and printed on durable aluminium panels, here seen checking the quality of the test prints with harbourmaster Rob Parsons...

the blank, grey walls of the newly refurbished fish market cried out for some sort of decoration and what better way to celebrate Newlyn's continuing ability to lure artists from far and wide to document the fishing industry...

ever since Walter Langley and Stanhope Forbes founded the pioneering Newlyn School in the late1800s, no doubt as in this picture, 'Local Critics' by Langley the works will attract comments from the local community, especially those that might see themselves immortalised in paint as there predecessors were...

and so work began...

affixing the aluminium backed prints...

by the guys from Booths Print in Penryn...

who printed the photographic copies of the original canvasses that capture so many aspects of the port...

from the old 'shout' auction which started every weekday at 6am...

to lifting boxes of fish from a refrigerated fishroom during landing...

welding a beam trawler derrick...

landing sardines...

sorting and boxing fish at sea in the fishroom...

taking a break after landing... 

repairing a scalloper...

to gutting and washing the catch of hake...

also at sea, a crewman on the lookout for a dhan used to mark the end of a tier of nets...

roll-up on lips looking aft as the skipper brings the boat into berth against the quay...

the finished works can all be seen easily from the pavement opposite the fish market...

BBC Spotlight recorded Henrietta's reaction to seeing several years work finally on view to the public for the first time. Some of the original large canvasses are available for viewing and purchase directly from the artist via her website.