Like watered silk

The coast path from the west enters the little town of Newport/Trefdraeth here where the Nevern river meets a silky sea. The spit of sand directly opposite, between the fresh water and the salt, shapeshifts according to the prevailing winds and tides. Behind lies the windy expanse of Newport Sands with dunes and a golf course beyond.

This point was known as the eye of the Nevern and it was where incoming sailing ships would wait for a pilot to escort them upriver to the town's small port with their cargoes of limestone, coal and slate from the nearby sea-quarries.

Newport was a very much a sea-going town and there must have been much bemused head-shaking on the part of the old salts when a lifeboat station was built here in 1884, in a little cove just to the right of my shot. The lifeboat "Clevedon" was proudly inaugurated and duly hymned by a local bard:

This handsome boat South Wales may boast
The pride and beauty of the coast
Upon the sea she looks a gem
An ornament to Newport, Pemb.

Alas - she indeed proved to be little more than an ornament! It turned out she could not be launched unless the tide was high, owing to the size of the sand bar at the mouth of the river. The Clevedon was removed in 1895 and Newport has relied upon the Fishguard life boat service ever since.