Monday 17 September 2012

BBC filming in Staithes

Excitement at the harbour this week: the BBC are filming again. Through September they'll be shooting Old Jack's Boat, for release on CBeebies at Christmas. It was ironic to see a pretend ice-cream stall set up within arm's reach of the real Beacon Farm ice-cream van! Fingers crossed that this new film is better than the last one: The Body Farm, a crime drama series with scenes filmed in Staithes last September (2011) was widely regarded as a disaster. This time the producers are probably hoping that you can't go wrong with a story about a boat....

Wednesday 12 September 2012

Steve catches biggest fish

The annual competition for the biggest cod caught from a Staithes boat, run by the Cod & Lobster pub, is hotting up. Steve Burke, who did much of the renovation work at Dunsley (www.dunsleyinstaithes.co.uk) including building the wonderful front yard and wall, has set the bar high, catching a massive 30lb cod. Duncan and I met him on the water this weekend, when we were out in our sea kayaks. He showed us the best of that day's catch, a huge ling (see picture), caught by line from his beautiful coble Rose of England. There are a few fish dinners in that one, for sure!

Monday 10 September 2012

Sea kayaks and surf at Staithes

As we sea kayaked out of the Staithes harbour on Saturday, surfers were playing hard on the surf break. It's somewhat surreal to be paddling on calm water just metres from crashing waves! Staithes has a low-tide surf break just south-side of the harbour entrance, and the waves were coming in high and hard this weekend. We kayaked far out to sea to get around the surf, making our way down to Runswick Bay for coffee and cakes at the tea shop, then had a fun run back to Staithes. We popped our heads into Dunsley (www.dunsleyinstaithes.co.uk) to say hi to our guests, a young couple on honeymoon! who were having a lovely, relaxing time in the sunshine.
 Pics below show paddling out of the Staithes harbour, heading south along the cliffs, kayaking in to Runswick Bay and the run back to Staithes at 6pm.