Billy's back

Boat spotting - which boat?.......
the prop is off the Dom Bosco while she is on the slip.....
in tribute.......
one man and a broom, there's a whole lot of quay to sweep before the big day.......
a rare opportunity.......
Newlyn roof garden in full bloom.......
past the buoy and just about to ease her back......
the Billy Rowney turns with the Mount in the background.....
and heads in through the gaps.....
to a packed harbour, most of the fleet have managed to be back in port for the holiday weekend.

A plethora of notices includes one to anyone looking for Helen.....

Final scrub down with bleach on the shelterdeck to remove the guano......
before Master of the Indian rope trick, George heaves a line from the Chickadee aboard the.....
St Georges before pulling her away from the market after landing........

a chance to catch the Buccas Four at this year's Blessing of the Fleet ceremony on Sunday.....

one fishing licence for sale, 11.2 VCUs, 0.92 of a ton and 7.5Kw contact 01872 863932.....

and then you stand a chance of winning £1000 in the ongoing crab draw courtesy of CEFAS.....

back to the missing Helen who has re-located it seems.......

a reminder to keep your eyes peeled for any strange looking sea monsters with the Kraken project........

or better still solve the mystery of the missing tubs, not the sort of thing you could fit in the boot of a mini or make off with on the back of a push bike without attracting some attention......

Storm Petrel in the bass again.....

more than a plateful, good sized dovers from the St George will no doubt figure on the menu this coming Bank Holiday weekend.

In days of olde - BG - before Greenpeace

Breton sardine fishermen back in the 1920s found themselves competing for a living with a huge population of dolphins and proposed that the government of the day sanction what they saw as a simple solution - read the article as reported in the NY Times(?!!) - an insight into a different set of sensibilities!

Ignore the first story at the top of the page and scroll further down until you see, 'Topics of the Times'.

Cornish sardines make the front page again!

Photo courtesy of the BBC's Countryfile Magazine

Cornish Sardines, along with Kent cherries, British bees, Somerset cider and Suffolk salami, Nick Howell from the Pilchard Works are just some of twenty nominations for the prestigious 2009 Local Food Heroes Awards by the BBC's Countryfile Magazine. These food industry nominated awards celebrate a wide variety of food people all determined to keep our food traditions alive - evidence of the importance of these and other awards and campaigns can now be judged by the number of local products appearing on our national supermarket shelves - all good news for the Cornish fishing industry!

It's a wrap!

Christo - always controversial and one of the first installation artists to achieve worldwide recognition, appears to have gone back to his roots and created one of his trademark 'wrapped' works of art in the harbour's lorry park area. The currently untitled work is an example of wrapping manmade artifacts insitu - an early example of Christo's work is featured on his official website here - perhaps the harbour will use the Fish Festival as an opportuntiy to auction off such a masterpiece to help with the harbour finances.

Swanage seaside visitor guide.

The clock tower (sans clocks) at Peveril Point, Swanage - odd it might look and so it should, local builder and stone mason Mowlem used this building (and others) to ballast his ships on their return journeys when they delivered stone to London.....

alongside the clock tower the Swanage Lifeboat house......

watched by the local gull population, cleaning nets at sea.......

the local wet fish shop in Swanage has their own boat - an ex-Fowey registered punt, the Independent.....

viewed from the end of the pier, the high speed cat Condor Express heads out of Poole on her way to the Channel Islands - maybe one day the Scillonian IV will look like this.......

a Saab Sea Wave Radar, one of these hanging off the end of the quay in Newlyn might create some interesting readings at certain times of the year......

they could have used some Cornish granite perhaps.....

the SSRC, local sea rowing club in Swanage, proudly displays the 3rd prize rosette from this year's town carnival.......

behind lays their gig, Dancing Ledge.....

along the length Swanage's wooden pier, anyone can have a small brass plaque engraved and set into the wooden walkway.......

has anyone lost a prop? - contac the local diving schools, which inlude.......

the oldest in the country and possibly the world!

Not just winkles to be picked in Chelsea

One of the finest wet fish shops - they of traditional variety - with an iced window display in an open shop front is the The Chelsea Fishmonger. The shop, along with two others around London are owned by Rex Goldsmith who sources much of his fish from the inshore boats that land to Newlyn market. Inshore boats? The shop in Chelsea provides the very best possible fish in tip-top condition (check out previous posts with cracking fish like the red mullet from the Scorpio).

Rex has just begun a blog of all things fishy connected to the shop just off the Kings Road and it's trade . In working hours you can also catch sight those Cornish fish laid out on the counter display on the shop's web cam!

Early birds catch the sardines

A well-behaved group of visitors make their way to the pontoon berths behind Seafood Cornwall's Project Director, Nathan de Rozarieux.....

but get sidetracked as they make their way down the gangway by the sight of the Pascoe boys hauling their shrimp pots - like the good inshore fishermen they one day will be, they set an excellent example to their peers by wearing lifesavers.......
landing to the fish market, Ocean Fish's Resolute.....
she managed a good haul of Cornish Sardines after being out all night just as light was coming in the sky.......
hopefully Huirricane Bill won't put the dampers on the BBQs over the next few days.......
last few fish drop into the insulated tubs.......
before being topped off with more flake ice.

Smoked haddock and pollack or fresh crab - take your pick of the finest Newlyn fish

Give the man a ring if you need fresh fish delivered to your door in the Penzance area and surrounds......
straight out of Newlyn Fish's smoker, good sized hot smoked pollack fillets to tantalise and tempt the taste buds......
or how about a haddock fillet, slightly darker smoke from the oak chippings......
this time its a fresh batch of crab being hoisted out of the huge pot boiler at MandR Crab Processors.

Sunday supper fresh Newlyn crab cakes

Fried in a couple of centimetres of oil in a wok, fresh Newlyn crab bound together with flour, sweetcorn and.....
dipped in a sweet chilli sauce with lime.

Classic Charlie at the PZ gallery

Opened yesterday, a chance to see black and white platinum photographic prints at the PZ Gallery, many shot around Logan's Rock and Porthcurno.

Gwennap Head - the NCI on watch

Looking down on the beach at Porthgwarra, evidence that there has been a goo ground sea running with all the weed washing in.....
looking down on a gull looking down on a small flock of gannets on the lookout for supper......
one of the Runnelstone day marks contrasts with the heather and hawthorn landscape.....
Gwennap Head, one of the first National Coastwatch Institution watch stations to open in 1996, there is an appeal for volunteers to boost the number of staff at Penzance's lookout station.......
the NCI provides an invaluable watch keeping safety service to mariners around the coast now that the MCA (formerly the Coastguard) no longer man these lookouts.....
a collection of buffs and trawl floats from every nation by the look of it.......
spotted hovering over the cliffs at Porthgwarra.

Saturday scene

Mario and the baby team survey the early morning scene from the shelterdeck on the crabber, Dom Bosco......
a rare visitor these days, a Lowestoft registered vessel, not likely to start the riots again though......
showing that Celtic affinity, the visiting Breton yacht has hoisted a Cornish flag too......
one creep used to regain the Trevessa's gear she dropped when her fuel pump packed up......
les chien chained to the wall in protest......
Sid's new command, the inshore scalloper Neptune looking very tidy.....
and on the hard for a scrub.....
and wash down.....
with all hands to the scrubbers......
Newlyn's installation art work this week is entitled, 'End of the Line'.

Black fish new market

Reproduced from the Cornishman Thursday August 20th 2009.

It would appear that Newlyn is still losing out to alternative fish markets with local vessels landing elsewhere. One such article appeared in the local newspaper, The Cornishman last week - where it was reported that some boats are preferring to land their fish elsewhere including a hitherto unknown fish market in Brixton - fresh fish they do indeed sell!
Katri Iivonen, the Cornishman's newest reporter, obviously found cutting her teeth on the very complex world of commercial fishing a challenging task and in future the guys will no doubt be careful she gets her facts down in shorthand more carefully- especially Kenny Downing who now finds himself back at sea as skipper of the Plymouth beam trawler Admiral Gordon with current skipper Archie wondering how he was suddenly demoted!