A trip on the River Tawe

What a lovely morning we have just had. We met in Swansea Marina to board "The Black Prince" for a leisurely cruise through the marina, with a view of all the boats moored there. For a change this summer, the sun shone, there was blue sky and the only shower was when we were on the boat and it didn't matter as we were under cover.

Boats varied from classy and pricey to messing about on the water varieties - all very picturesque.

 Coffee was served shortly after leaving the marina and, as we sailed sedately up the Tawe we heard the history of the busy docks, the copper works in Copperopolis and we saw remnants of the old dock walls. Much of the masonry for these was made from the waste slag from the copper smelting process.

Merle is looking at an ingot of copper - gosh was it heavy, and that came as a surprise.               We thought the two grooves on the ingot were so that they could be stacked one on top of the other with a length of rope running between the grooves. This would stop the cargo of copper moving in the ship during transit in heavy seas.

This is what is left of Copperopolis. How lovely to see the site green and flourishing again, and the river has fish once more, but also, what a shame that this history of Swansea is not being paid more attention and a bit more preservation wouldn't go amiss.

If you would like a trip on The Black Prince, have a look at their website. www.scbt.org.uk