Guide To Water Babies Narrowboat Hire

What an absolute pleasure from start to finish with Karen and Chris from Water Babies. This was our first time barging and Karen and Chris both went out of their way to make sure we felt confident to set sail on our own. Communication was first class and clear instruction from Chris on the first day ensured we had a fun filled few days. Dolly Mixture has absolutely everything you could need and the Lancaster canal is an easy first trip. Many lovely places to moor and lots of wildlife. We took our dog along with us which added to the fun; she loved it as much as we did. We will definitely be back and would recommend Water Babies to anyone wanting to try barging or those who are experienced wanting a lovely few days.

We have just got back from a lovely week away on Dolly mixture. Very clean and tidy with lots of thoughtful touches throughout such as umbrellas, WiFi and torch etc. Jay was very friendly and told us everything we needed to know about the boat and the canal itself. Would recommend to anyone. Thanks Jay!

Had a lovely long weekend cruising down the Lancaster Canal on Dolly Mixture. The boat has got everything that you need and is very well neat and tidy throughout. We had great instruction and the owner made the entire process enjoyable and professional. Highly recommend, we will be back. Thank you.

We stayed on Dolly Mixture for a week. It was our first holiday on a narrow boat. Jay explained how everything worked and then we cruised down the canal and showed me the ropes! including a three point turn!

By the time we returned to the mooring I felt confident enough to sail on my own. We had mixed weather but were able to go North past Lancaster over the Lune Aqueduct all the way to the northern end of the canal at Tewitfield. We returned South to the mooring where Jay did an excellent job of sorting out a technical glitch in the bathroom. Nothing was too much trouble for him. We then cruised South and nearly reached Preston but stayed on a mooring in the middle of the countryside before returing to the mooring.

We enjoyed our week with friendly people passing and lots of birds,incuding Swans Herons, ducks and ducklings. A good week thanks to Jay.

Fantastic long weekend on Dolly mixture during the heatwave in June, whilst the weather plays a big part in outdoor activities everything was great. Paul gave us all the facts we needed to know about everything on the boat and a crash course (not literally) on how to sail it, all in a very professional and humorous manner. If you are new to boating (as we were) or experienced, we would fully recommend using Water Babies. We will definitely be using them again in the future.