Copper Jack

• Adventures

Copper Jack is a passenger boat, managed by the Swansea Community Boat Trust. Bookings can be made online and groups and special events can book it for trips.

Somewhat larger than Brandy Pad, Copper Jack provides trips out of Swansea Marina and up the river Tawe exploring the history of the copper industry on the river, where at one time almost 80% of the world’s copper is thought to have been smelted. The copper industry has long died out in Swansea and the old North Dock is now car parks and shopping.

A barrage at the mouth of the river means it is no longer tidal and the river is coming back to life. The surroundings are now green and verdant.  Wildlife has been returning gradually with the occasional flash of blue when a kingfisher passes by.

We both enjoy helping out, which involves crewing outside and inside.

Outside crewing includes managing the ropes, being bow lookout, whilst in the marina, or steering, something we are, of course, well practised at albeit on a smaller craft.

Inside involves taking payments, supplying tea and coffee or alcoholic refreshments. It may, eventually, lead to giving the talk as we travel up the river, before winding near the Liberty Stadium and returning to berth in the marina.

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Arriving in Bristol

• Adventures

We have finally made it to Bristol. We travelled from Sharpness down the Severn Estuary to Portishead Marina, where we overnighted. We made the journey with the help  of Carl, one of the  Gloucester Pilots.

Then the next day we journeyed on our own (although with another boat) from Portishead Marina, up the Estuary, turned into the River Avon and then along the Avon into Bristol. I hope to post a video of the journey later, but for now, here are some photos that our good friend Rob took as we approached and went through Bristol Lock. He was waiting for us, and it was great to see a familiar face at the end of the challenging trip.

Brandy Pad, in the distance, passes under the Clifton Suspension Bridge.

Hi There!

Lock full

Good to see you

Looking for a mooring

Finally moored up in Bristol Harbour

Many thanks to Rob for letting us use the pictures.

As usual, click on any image to see a bigger (and better) version.

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Caught in a Regatta

• Adventures

We are making our way down the River Weaver towards Runcorn today. As we came around a bend, we suddenly found ourselves facing a lot of rowers coming straight at us:

Rowing sculls coming towards us. You can tell from the image that it was rather wet!

We had  found ourselves in the middle of the Runcorn Rowing Club Autumn Regatta.  There were around 50 boats, a mixture of single sculls, 2’s and 4’s  coming up river in preparation for the competitive row back down again. So, we had to carefully navigate our way through them as they, of course, were all facing the opposite direction as they rowed.

However, that was not the end of the problem as we were now in the middle of their course, which was around 4.6 Kilometres long, and were a hazard to their races. They had to wait for us to clear the route before they could begin racing. We picked up speed to travel as fast as we reasonably could and eventually cleared their finish line – which turned out to be right where we were going to moor up for tonight. Being on a river, it is best to moor facing up stream. This meant we had to turn the boat around first. We managed to do so and tie up just before the first boats came past us. These shell rowing boats travel much faster than we do, so it was a job to clear the course before they caught up with us.

Several 4’s reaching the finish line – right in front of us

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