Amble boats and rusty bits.

Its a chilly windy day down at the Marina and harbour - a classic February day, the tide is almost fully in and the boats are bobbing about adding a bit of colour to a fairly grey sea..  Amble once a thriving fishing town now relies as much, if not more, on tourism and the Marina sports some fine looking boats, alongside less spectacular small functioning craft - Its a nice walk past the Yacht Club over the breakwater and down passed the newly built fish market next to the harbour where the few remaining fishing boats moor.

There are boats of every size and shape from puffin cruise boats to dinghies, boats made from wood and fibre glass... posh boats, tatty boats - boats that look like they would never float again, boats full of water parodying their use, fishing boats, catamarans - boats everywhere...

In the harbour there are the traditional Coble boats - flat bottomed and high bowed to deal with the constant swell of the ocean - with colourful awnings - a more recent addition to protect from bad weather, and of course the bigger fishing boats.

The boats are fascinating the movement the slight clinking sound that never stops, the reflections in the water even on a grey day but what intrigues me and interests me as much as the boats are the bits and bobs, the machinery, the lobster pots and the fishing nets left laying out to dry... waiting for the next use.

There's a background story to every last bit and I like these glimpses of what helps the boat function and where they are placed.  some look abandoned and decaying but I suspect they are just much used and weathered...

All around the Marina and the Harbour there are huge fixed bollards for tethering the massive ships weighing many tons while the carco, the fish and pots are unloaded and loaded in all weathers.

The chains and anchors rusty and worn by the sea and constant weathering.  the trailers that seem to have seen much better days - are they still used or do they lay abandoned waiting for a trip to the scrap yard.  These are the images that I am going to use for my initial inspiration for my Dr Marten brief, boats and the accessories,   I'm looking forward to looking at the detail in these images and seeing what might evolve.