"Bleak" is how one woman in Castletownbere described the day yesterday.
The sun was shining, the sea was calm as glass. But there was a coldness over the harbour and a glumness in the town as the waiting began for final word of the crew of the St Gervase.
People were telephoning Father Donal O'Connor, the young parish priest, and telling him they were lighting candles and praying for good news.
"It's a waiting game now. The waiting is awful, " he said, back from a morning spent with the families.
In May Father O'Connor officiated at the wedding of one of the crew members, Frenchman Mr Jacques Biger and local woman Ms Gillian Murphy. It was a time of great celebration.
"Jack", as he was called locally, was in his mid-30s. From Brittany, he had been in town for 10 years and was part of the community.
"I wouldn't ever say at this stage he was a Frenchman," said Mr John Murphy, chairman of the Castletownbere twinning committee with Locmiquelic, a town in Brittany.
Mr Murphy had been at skipper Mr Gary Kane's wedding to Ms Alexandra O'Driscoll a few years ago. The couple's son is around two-and-a-half.
He knew 18-year-old Mr Kieran Harrington too. Mr Harrington is from Castletownbere. The fourth man, Mr Timothy Anglend, from Ardglass, Co Down was not well known.
In his early 20s, he had arrived only a few weeks ago. "But he's as much part of it as anyone else," Mr John Murphy said. Earlier this year the previous owner of the St Gervase, Mr Sean Cotter, drowned in the boat he had traded up to. Mr Michael Harrington, former chairman of Cork County Council and local supermarket owner, said they were an exceptionally nice crew. Mr Kane, the Donegal man and Ms O'Driscoll from Allihies made a striking couple.
"Fishing is a high-risk profession," Mr Harrington said. He was not the only one to remember Christmas 1968 and the Sea Flower tragedy and the five who drowned in it. Then there was the Bere Island ferry and four more drownings. And individual tragedies. There are 500 families involved in fishing in the peninsula.
Mr Harrington is also the undertaker. "Three together in the funeral home. This is business we could well do without," he said. Mr Anglend's body was not expected to be buried in Castletownbere.
At 3 a.m., when the EPIRB beacon went up and the Baltimore Lifeboat went out, it found wreckage on Mizen Head. There was no distress signal other than the beacon which indicates the boat is at a certain depth.
The St Gervase left after midnight. Three hours later it was gone.