Crystal Sea Trawling Blog

We sailed again late thursday afternoon after we had landed, so the fish would make Fridays market.  Alec had to come in on thursday morning early, as the sender for the autopilot had bust on the rudder, so they had to stear the boat by hand whilst towing and with a southwest 6-7 it was not easy to keep the boat on coarse.

The forecast was for a southerly 8-9 for a time so they camein and John from Selex came down early and soon had the problem sorted. They were giving a lull in the weather for 18hours or so before the next low arrived, this time with storm force winds.

We didn't go to far off as we hadn't much time and it was still quite poor when we shot so we worked our single net. The fishing wasn't particulary good with a dozen baskets of mixed fish but not much prime stuff amongst the catch. It went earily quiet in the early hours of friday morning with just a large swell from the southwest to keep us company, so we shot the twin rig for a watch.

We had a better haul with a nice bit of prime this time, but by lunchtime there was an updraft in the air as the predicted storm started to Draw breath, so we got the gear aboard and got underway. 

By the time we had reached the gaps in Newlyn it was blowing quite hard and there were whirls in the gaps, so we had to turn the boat on to make sure we didn't get turned around by them on our approach. Once in we got the ropes out and doubled up on them this time, then 10 minuets after we got in 3 frenchman came in to shelter as well.

We may get away again on sunday, but were not to sure, as the forecast is not giving it quiet for long. If we don't sail we'll land sunday for mondays market. The outlook isn't good for the week ahead either, so at the moment November seems like its turning into a wash out.