The Ribble Link - on the River and into Savick Brook

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The Ribble Link - on the River and into Savick Brook

Tuesday, 26 May 2009 14:37

Five Mile perch to Savick Brook - the beginning of The Link

I left you just after we had turned right round Asland Lamp or 5 Mile Perch and we were merrily making our way upstream on the River Ribble!

Boats behind still on the River Douglas

On our port (left) side we could see industry and in the far distance the misty Lancashire Fells. The River Ribble is wide at this point and the banks appear to be lined with flotsam and jetsam.

To our port

On our starboard (right) was pasture and we kept a look out for the mile markers or perches, giving us an idea of how far we had to go as we followed the rather sketchy map.

Mile marker or 4 Mile Perch

Richard (from Lancaster Canal Trust) and I were in the bows and we were amused to see this "sheep island" just past 3 Mile Perch

Contented sheep wait for the river to subside

Richard said that he thought the sheep were well aware of the tide and knew that it would go down soon. High tide was at 11.45 and so they would have a bit of a wait. I took the photo at 11.53!

We passed 2 Mile Perch (3 Mile Perch is broken and the stump is submerged) and the city of Preston could be seen on the horizon, between the ever present electric pylons. Those of you who are familiar with the skyline of Preston can probably name the church spires!

Preston skyline from the River Ribble

We had been told by Dave and Heather on Takey Tezey that the entrance to the Ribble Link was easy to miss. We had also been told to look out for the green light which sometimes does not show! If there was no green light we had to ring BW. Being in the bows I spotted what I thought might be the entrance but could not see a gap!

It looks very small

The notice there looked like a familiar BW notice and I could just see a green light so hoped John and Rich at the tiller knew what to do! John told me later that he had worked out that if we arrived first, on the slack tide, we would not find it as difficult to turn into the entrance as we had been told it could be!

Apparently there is a sand bank on the left hand side, and on one occasion a boat had got stuck; when the tide had dropped there was a five foot gap underneath his hull.

Clever Clogs was right and he took Epiphany in through the comparatively small gap - the entrance to the Ribble Link and Savick Brook.

Entering Savick Brook

BW notice - the green light rule!

So here we were. Fortunately there are very clear channel markers to guide boats in the right direction.

Red to port, green to starboard

Turning left between channel markers

It would not be good to turn right!

The windy route of Savick Brook behind us

We were approaching what looked like a very narrow channel with a BW chap standing watching us. There seemed to be some sort of control hut too.

It was obvious we had to keep right of the arrow

So what was all this about? It was the rotating Sea Lock - the gate was submerged and we passed through. The BW chap said we were to moor at the pontoon before Savick Bridge to wait for the water to go down sufficiently for us all to go through.

Pontoon awaits, bridge in distance

It was time for lunch and the Chef rustled up bacon butties for all! We had to wait quite a while for the other boats to appear. We had only taken an hour and 40 minutes from leaving Tarleton Lock to arriving at the Savick Bridge pontoon. About 20 minutes later Margaret Rose and the other three arrived!

The boats gather on the pontoon