The fifth week into this first summer of our Island Pilgrimage was “the week of Cities and Visitors”. It has been great fun and a real privilege to meet and pray with friends and visitors and host them onboard Sea Fever. The award for travelled furthest goes to Maddie Thurlow, all the way from Banchory in North East Scotland. Maddie is part of St Ternan’s Church and it was particularly special to welcome her onboard as the church there have been faithfully praying for our Pilgrimage.
Next up for travelling distance was Margaret and Alan Torrance from St Andrews, along with Alan’s son Peter and his 3 children (who live in Bristol). The last time I sailed with Muffett was 35 years ago when we dropped into Camasunary Bay On Skye!
Very close on distance was Johnny Andrews visiting from Belfast, together with Lucy and Serena. We are looking forward to seeing Johnny again when Sea Fever reaches Strangford Lough in August.
It was wonderful to make new friends Jane and Stephen Everard. They had spotted Sea Fever earlier in the week with the banner flying. On Sunday when we went to join the worship at Woodlands Metro Church there they were sitting in front of us and recognised who we were from the logo on our polo shirts. Also remarkably they live in a village in West Sussex just a few miles from where we lived for 10 years! They came onboard for a visit with their daughter Naomi and Jacob.
For me one of the happiest moments was to welcome Lee and Pam onboard. They are part of our homegroup in Box and faithful members of the village church St Thomas a Becket. They travelled over on Sunday and we met up at the morning service at Woodlands Metro before they treated us to lunch at the Bristol Cathedral Café.
Whilst in Bristol we tracked down The Prayer Barge www.theprayerbarge.com . What a wonderful idea! The barge has been fitted out as a prayer and retreat space. Moored right up at Temple Quay in the heart of the modern business district, it provides an inspirational outreach and support in the City. We were warmly welcomed onboard by Richard and Lois Evans who run the Bristol Chaplaincy www.bristolchaplaincy.co.uk
Our stay in Bristol turned out to be longer than expected – the harbour had problems with the gates for the lock connecting the harbour to the River Avon. So we had to time our exit for when the height of tide in the river was the same as the height of water in the Floating Harbour, known as “on the level”. The harbour team did very well to get us under the road bridges and out into the river.
A windy and choppy sail to Cardiff and I was relieved to get through the barrage and into Cardiff Bay. The Cardiff Bay Yacht Club is a truly excellent place to berth, and an even better place to eat. We were joined for dinner by Jo’s niece Martha and Daf who live in Cardiff. Whilst there we met with Josh Parmar at Woodville Baptist Church – a lively church that is serving the multi-cultural community and having lots of fun in the process!
Lots, lots more happened in Bristol. In particular learning more about the City’s historic connections with the transatlantic slave trade. I shall share reflections on that another time.
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