The adventuring duo bag the Ribble Link by Anthony Hirst

We had to be up at the ungodly hour of 7am to get the boat shipshape & ready for the epic Ribble Link. None of us had had much sleep as Daquiri had been buggaring around in the night & even managed to burst through the door into the lounge waking me at one point.

Sandra took the Boyz out while I came round then after a quick breakfast it was time to haul the anchor out just in case. It’s obviously really heavy as it needs to be & as we have to store it in the gas locker this is never an easy task. All the other boats set off but we decided to check the prop just in case & typical it had a load of stuff round it again! After that we set off sharpish to the lock & waited in line as the last boat.

Eventually we went in with another boat but as it had a put put engine I knew it was going to be slow & it went out before us so we were stuck behind it. I wanted to overtake as we were fighting the current at too slow a speed so steering was difficult but Sandra wanted us to wait until we were out of sight of the lock keeper.

Eventually I got the go ahead to overtake & the other boat said something to us but we weren’t sure if they were annoyed at us or not. But we had been told to put our foot down & its impossible to control a boat going so slow on a tidal river. We sped off & soon the other boat was a dot behind us. It was an absolutely beautiful day & we could just see water for miles & miles. We were on the look out for a marker which we were under strict instructions to go the left of & torn right behind it. As we were so far behind the other boats we felt a bit unsure of where we were going & saw a few markers close to land but decided unless we wanted to be grounded they cold be it.

Eventually we saw the other boats in the distance & the marker we needed to turn round. So we left the River Douglas & turned onto the River Ribble. With the other boats within sight in the distance we felt better though we did feel bad we’d completely lost sight of the boat behind. Then off to the left I spotted a seals head bobbing up & down put of the water but it was too far away & too quick to take a photo. Never thought we’d see a seal on Sandra’s trip round the UK canal system!!!

Next we were looking for a green traffic light to signal the entrance to Savick Brook. We could see it for ages before we got to it & we saw the boats ahead turn into it. We got to it & managed to turn despite the strong current into it. The water was incredibly low & we knew why Colette had thought it was a mud pit.

About 10 mins in Sandra’s phone rang it was CRT asking where we were as they were about to shut the sea lock. Luckily as we were already on the brook they kept it open for us but the boat behind would have missed it & they would have had to go to Preston Docks for the night & presumably try again the next day. The lock keeper hurried us along bit we felt awful about the boat behind. He confirmed though that we’d done the right thing overtaking as its better to have 1 boat shut out rather than 2.

We then had to moor up along the other 4 boats who were glad to see us. Apparently CRT guy had tried Sandra a few times but she had no signal so he was about to shit the lock but the other boats insisted we were just behind. Phew that had been a close one! We had to wait about 20mins for the water to go down so we could get under a low bridge. Then we set off up the muddy narrow channel of Savick Brook. This was far scarier than the tidal bit as far as I was concerned. The CRT did the first lock for us & then we went through the next 4 doubling up with another boat. Really nice couple on board. The Boyz finally could get off here too. Sandra did the locks & walked them inbetween each lock while I frazzled & drove the boat!

After locks 9-4 the last 3 staircase ones are manned again by CRT. Now this is funny as the turn into them is so sharp we had to go past & reverse in. After all the times Sandra & I have gone backwards up locks when we shouldn’t really have done for once we were instructed to!!! At the top of the locks we bid farewell to the other boat as we turned right just to do the Preston Arm so I could catch the train back. We passed the sanitary station in pursuit of diesel but found the marina was shut so we turned round & went back & filled up with water. As we had time to kill & it was a glorious day I decided to wash the roof of the boat. Think Sandra was just waiting for me to fall in but I didn’t oblige.

We then moved the boat across the canal & moored eventually when we found a spot that wasn’t shallow. It was right next to a great big park for the Boyz. Sandra ran up to bridge & road to work out where we were & booked me a taxi. I caught this to Preston station & headed home at a slightly faster speed than we’d been doing during the day.

So another epic canal adventure done & the return leg to look forward to on 10 June when I return for a week to do that & The Anderton Boat Lift.

Ribble link video (not ours)

• Golden Boyz
• Golden retrievers
• Narrowboating
• Ribble link
• Savick brook
• seal spotting