Thoughts on Lobsters

Here we are, first landfall, the Old Harbour at Scarborough. It is quite picturesque, with the seaside resort alongside the working fishdock, fishmarket and fishing boats. The harbourmaster's office is in the old lighthouse at the harbour entrance.

The victorian Grand Hotel on the seafront is just that, very grand. An open top bus runs tours around the town, and a ruined castle sits on a hilltop overlooking the bay. Time to get our landlegs back, if only briefly.

Managed to pick up cruising charts to cover up to Fifeness in Scotland. Upto now we've only been able to get charts to Whitby. It seems that no-one wants to go further north, except mad circumnavigators like us.

Scarborough sea front shops were very much as expected, but not without a charm of it's own. Icecream, fish and chips, tea shops, rock, mostly tacky souvenirs and penny arcades. Plus fresh seafood stalls offering in-between meals "ooh, go on then" portions to enjoy as you take in the fresh salt air.

As for the thoughts on lobsters, the relatively shallow coastal waters are dotted with pot markers, indicating a fisherman's lobster pots below. And the harbour side was piled with pots waiting to go out again. Now this has been going on for a few hundred years, certainly many lobster and crab generations, but they must still fall for the trick; an entrance that lets them in, but not out again. Robin and I wondered if eventually a breed of lobster and crab would develop that avoided these traps. After all, it's only the ones who get left behind that go on to breed.


54 16.98'N 00 23.35'W, 201 nautical miles so far