Tuesday 22nd. August. Christine went off swimming early and left me to take the boat down to the Ribble Link basin. Took me 6 hours, plus lunch. Chris had breakfast in Booth's and went shopping in Preston. Met up about 3.30 at the basin.

John left me to return to Wiltshire. leaving me in the basin awaiting the journey down the Link.  The locks were three steps of a staircase, and looked quite scarry. I decided to give the boat a big clean as the owners were due on board the nexct day (what a waste of time that was.) However it did stop me getting anxious about the man who sat on a bench 5 yards from my kitchen window he was drinking a bottle of beer and had 6 cans. He did unnerve me a little but I was hoping that the boat behind me was keeping an eye on things.  I was also hoping that it would rain again but it did not oblige.  I turned on the engine thinking that this would disturb his peace: no luck. He eventually left after drinking all of his cans leaving me in peace to have a peacful night alone on the boat.  However, at around 10.30pm two more boats arrived one of which banged into the boat with quite a bang. They then proceeded to have a party on board. Relaying their trip down  I was not very interested in this.

Wednesday 23rd  John woke me early as he said that the owner Chris and Stan would be arriving early.  I got up at 7 am. had breakfast a further tidy up. By 9.45 I was getting a little anxious as the other boats were getting ready to set sail and also British WaterWays were arriving and getting the locks set.  There was no way that I was going down the link on my own even with my Girl Guiding Boating Licence. I rang John who contacted Chris and stated that they were minutes from me.  It took them a further 25 minutes to reach me, Whoooo|

Setting off we  reversed into the lock not very easy as it was very windy but we manged without too many problems.  I received little confidence from Stan who was a little concerned that he had not used the boat for some time but he's a helecopter pilot so it will be just fine.  Well it nearly was until we went into the side near a weir going down the link to getting ready to start down the Ribble.  Chris and Stan brought their two sons: perhaps not the brightest idea of the day as they did get a little bored and Stan and Chris had their hands full sorting the locks and steering the boat.

 

Going down the river I decided that I needed to have a go at the helm (just so that I can say that I had done this.  Chris and Stan went inside and suddenly the boat started to make a funny noise.  I reduced the speed and the two men rushed up. We had lost all power. (If John had been there I would have been accused of doing something wrong.) Happily the two men rescued a cockle net from the propeller and we were able to start moving again.  It seemed to take an age to get down the river. The two boats behind were doing a dance around each other trying to keep behind us. We later found out that one boat had overheated. Without further mishap we turned into the River Douglas and we were soon back in safer waters.