At the revs we were towing, we would have been burning around four gallons of fuel per hour. At Looe prices, this was costing Sapphire 30 to 40 for a 14 hour day . Our last four hour tow went in quickly and before long the cod end was emptied. Once a course was set for Looe, the catch was quickly gutted, washed, sorted and stored in empty boxes from the hold. It was then set out on deck along with the rest of the days catch.
Every boat works the same way, with the fish on deck.
This is so that you loose no time in getting the fish ashore once you reach the market. When 30 boats arrive back all on the same tide, 'All Hell' could easily break loose if the landing was not rapid and good order wasn't kept. We arrived alongside at 7.00pm and we weren't long in setting ashore our days work, which included 14 stones of lemons. Chris and Aaron tied up the Sapphire while Justin guided me to the electronic scales. As he weighed each box I iced it down, with one shovel of ice on the top and none in the bottom.