In a meeting held in early Summer 1987 with my former business partner, it was decided that a list of priorities were to be made and the first on that list was to establish what size boat/ barge could navigate to Hereford. this was to include photos of all the bridges and measurements of the navigation arches. I spent almost a year walking the banks or the River Wye with a camera and notebook, the photos and details were put on a map in my former office.

As the Wye invader has a air draft of 4 metres it was important to be at the bridge no latter than half tide to be able to move through Chepstow on the rising tide, the street lamps and bridge lamps reflected down onto the river surface and the bridge arches seemed to be a lot narrower than they were, when the flood lamp on the wheelhouse was switched on this improved the situation and we passed under the bridge into the Wye Valley with the woods on the Port side (left) and cliffs and woods on the Starboard (right). The River Wye just above Chepstow Castle is about 75 metres wide on a rising tide, it was decided to put the roof spot lamp on the bank about 100 metre forward to the Port side, this assisted us keeping the bows pointed ahead!