On a boat named Julie
![P1010701](https://www.ramblingabout.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/p1010701.jpg?w=150)
It took until 11 o’clock before the sun finally managed to burn its way through the mist that shrouded Dinan this morning. From there it turned into a beautiful, clear day.
We walked down to Dinan Port and hired a small boat for a few hours. This was comfort cruising as it had a steering wheel like a car and actual cushions – not your basic tinny at all. We headed downriver past some beautiful countryside and a couple of houses that might or might not qualify as villages. The sea is not all that far away from Dinan and the river widens quickly, although there is a narrow but clearly marked channel you need to stay within. The river was perfectly calm, apart from us the only thing causing ripples were fish jumping and birds diving.
![P1010641](https://www.ramblingabout.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/p1010641.jpg?w=150)
We’d brought a picnic with us so didn’t stop at the next major town, Port Lyvet, just turned around and headed back up river.
After passing back through Dinan we continued up-river under a little arched bridge and the huge viaduct. Here the river gets, naturally enough, progressively narrower until you are motoring though a green-sided channel surrounded by trees. After about 15 minutes you come to the first up-stream lock. Sadly for us, the locks only operate after 1 April (in general you can’t hire boats until then either but the good weather had led the couple who run the boat-hire to open up early). So we turned around again and sailed back down-river to Dinan.
The boys did most of the driving and had an absolute ball. They did a good job keeping us on track too with only the very occasional dramatic intervention required.