All at sea with sunfish

Joe shows us how it's done

I have written a serious piece on the potential of public sector spin-outs to do more than just achieve economies of scale but before I post that, I though you might like to see what I was up to this glorious weekend.

Anticipating tropical, sapphire seas, we thought we'd have another go fishing from our little boat and so the whole family made a mad dash down to Cornwall on Friday night. Hitting Cornish air is like being hit with a fat, feather duvet – it knocks you off your feet and into a state of relaxation like nothing I have ever known. Is it the oxygen? The ozone? The people, all of whom seem relaxed and deeply philosophical?

Katie gets to grips with fishing

In any event, even at a short burst, Port Isaac had the effect of calming back-to-school, job-seeking nerves and putting a very big smile on all our faces.

The trip took in some fantastic highlights like a secluded beach with a spectacular waterfall and huge basking fish that we later learnt were sunfish, which can grow to 4 metres, are the largest bony fish in the sea and are brought to Cornwall from more tropical waters on the current.

Sunfish in Falmouth 

In ignorance and because I loved their floppy shark-like impersonations I dubbed them, for the duration of our trip, hi-there! fish, as they appeared to be waving at us. At roughly a meter long they were really impressive, and so unlike anything I had seen outside the tropics before. We all got very excited, although like everyone else in that part of the world they seemed relaxed by contrast.

Sam, our helmsman, asked me in that charming way that 14-year-olds do, if I was on something, as I laughed like a drain all afternoon. No, I replied, just having fun and if you could have seen Katie's fantastically eccentric yet successful method of fishing, you would have laughed too.


Saturday night saw mackerel a plenty, a drink with neighbours and deep, deep sleep. You never know: I might just get used to this boating lark.