Day 13: The Last Mile. Penarth Marina to the Senedd.

This is the final blog post of a 13 day voyage on-board the yacht Capercaillie, made to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Neptune Coastline Campaign in Wales.  

To follow our adventures as we visited the Trust's Neptune coast in Wales, go to our first blog post and follow the links through the days.

Capercaillie is dwarfed amongst the playthings of the conspicuously wealthy, at Penarth Marina

Last night’s late arrival caused us to put off the final step of our round-Wales coastal marathon, the short trip across the Cardiff Bay lagoon to the pontoons in front of our government building, the Senedd.  

We set off through the Penarth Marina lock and soon the familiar landmarks of Cardiff’s political and cosmopolitan tourist centre moved into view: the copper carapace of the Millennium Centre, the red brick Pierhead Building, the white painted Norwegian Church and, of course, the Senedd.  

“I think we may have a problem.” John was scanning the quays with his binoculars on our approach.

It turned out that the visitors’ pontoons had been taken over by performance racing catamarans and official race vessels.  We found a space and cheekily squeezed in amongst a few hundred thousand pounds worth of carbon fibre super-yacht.  Predictably, we were immediately approached by a man in a dayglow jacket and walkie-talkie who pointed to an official-looking notice and stated that the whole area was cordoned off for the duration of the racing event. 

But we had an event to complete too, I argued, and a brief stand-off ensued.  This was a public pier and we’d also been planning our event for over six months, I argued.  Nevertheless, a contest between two slightly disheveled tee-shirted blokes with a 30 year old yacht and a uniform-clad security officer backed by a multimillion-pound sponsored yachting event, there could only be one winner.

We moored cheekily amongst the super yachts before being moved on by security

With our inscrutable adversary watching impatiently over us, John and I cut one of the Sails Around Wales banners off, threw my bags onto the quay and gave each other a manly farewell hug.  I thrust the rolled-up banner under my arm, turned to the officer, who seemed to be at the point of calling for reinforcements, and I asked him to evict me from the pontoons.

On the Senedd steps, Tom, a friendly young man who explained that he’d just completed a survival training course and was heading for a big breakfast, agreed to photograph me holding the banner. Feeling slightly disappointed that John was not able to join me for this last step of our journey around Wales, I smiled for the camera as, over Tom’s shoulder, I spotted Capercaille and its skipper, heading off to prepare for their return journey.  

I thanked Tom, picked up my bags and headed off to find a taxi back to life on terra-firma.

Journey's end.  Sails Around Wales reaches the Senedd

Go to Day 1 to follow the whole voyage

Day 12: A 'rather boisterous' journey: Swansea to Cardiff

Swansea marina - arrow marks Capercaille

For today's last leg of our epic tour of the Welsh coast, there was just John and I on-board Capercaillie.  Like the only other section when we didn't have any colleagues on-board, south Meirionnydd, this section of coast is unjustly devoid of National Trust properties.

Before sailing, we met yesterday's passenger, Kathryn with the long-awaited stop solenoid outside the National Waterfront Museum.  She handed over a bag with four bottles of Gower Gold beer and said, "because you didn't get to see Gower yesterday, I thought you should taste it instead"

Nevertheless, after about an hour into the sail we got great views of the south Gower coast, including Pwlldu Head and Three Cliffs Bay.  We sailed out far into the Bristol Channel to miss the Scarweather and Nash sand banks, which stood out as an menacing line of angry boiling surf to our north-east.

With the wind increasing to Force 6, we clicked in our harnesses as the boat yawed and rode the waves at a cracking pace.  At one point, as the wind was whistling in the rigging, John decided that we'd be safer with the genoa sail out and the mainsail taken down and sent me to walk along the pitching deck to furl the sail.  A couple of times when a big swell caught us, I had to hug the mast at to stop being thrown off.

The exhilarating sail continued in a similar fashion for another 7 hours, past Porthcawl, Nash Point, Barry Island, Penarth and eventually the barrage lock gates at Cardiff.

And so it was that 12 days and 402 miles since leaving Bangor, and having enjoyed the company of 10 adventurous colleagues and having sailed past all 133 National Trust properties in Wales, that John and I celebrated the completion of our circumnavigation with a satisfying "taste of Gower".

Entering the lock gates into the Cardiff Bay lagoon

One valedictory gesture remains, that is to sail across Cardiff bay to the Senedd.  But that will have to wait until tomorrow morning.

Go to Day 13