Monday12th April A visit to Scarborough

A misty night and cool though no frost, there was quite a thick sea mist obscuring the view, so after a slow start we drove to Scarborough and parked behind the "Newcastle Packet" Pub and had a quick look round the pound shop to buy an egg timer then strolled along the harbour side.

It was low tide and the marina was quiet, rather different to how it gets on a weekend.

I took a shot along the side of the outer harbour from the wooden walkway

then stopped to watch the fishermen as they mended the weighted rubber discs used to protect the bottom open edge of the trawl nets as they travel along the sea bottom.

The discs are cut from worn out agricultural tractor tyres, which is an excellent example of creative recycling!

As you can see here there are metal weights between the disc to counter their buoyancy.

It's nice to see that fishing still goes on here and is of major importance to the town, the harbour has been in use as it proudly says on a wall plaque since viking times.
I spotted this bird on the edge of the harbour wall, it seemed to have a strange hopping motion, which I only understood after looking closely at the image: the poor thing only has one foot!

A little further on we came to the lifeboat station, which I always find fascinating, so here are a couple of views!

The lifeboats are always in immaculate condition, you can see from the reflections on the hull that it is extremely highly polished!

Scarbough wouldn't be complete without the seagulls, this one has a clear view from it's chimney pot below the castle.
"Newcastle Packet" now that seems like an odd name for a pub doesn't it? but it harks back to the days before there were proper metal roads. In winter the tracks became impassable for weeks and even months at a time, and most traffic in goods etc., came by sea, with boats ranging right down the coast from Lands End to John O Groats