Onwards into Manchester and the boater unfriendly "Rochdale 9"

(Boat Flamingo - posted by Cath)

(Retrospective post for Saturday18th May)

The really rather lovely "Stork"

The electrical charging system on Flamingo doesn't seem to be performing quite as expected, and having already discovered some slight anomalies by the use of a voltmeter at various points on the system, Alan decided a bit of further investigation needed to be carried out, if only to rule out anything obvious.

This site is being developed - we hope this survives.

Alan thought a large high quality switch in the system was possibly slightly defective, and we had already stopped at a couple of chandleries we passed to see if we could buy a spare, but none had had anything suitable. He therefore decided to remove it and take it apart to check condition.

An unwanted stone attack - fortunately no serious damage done

In the meantime I decided to go for my third run of the week. Following the NHS 'Couch to 5K' programme makes things very easy for me. I listen to the podcast on my phone, I 'run' when I'm told to, I walk when I'm told to. It is easily manageable, and I can't overdo things. Once I've done it, I don't find myself thinking 'I should run further/faster/more often/etc'. When I first took up running, some 34 years ago I spent a lot of time feeling that I ought to be doing more. This takes all that away. I do what I'm told, and I expect that at the end of the programme I'll be able to shuffle along for 30 minutes.

On the "Rochdale 9" some locks are cranked rather than pushed open.

Back at the boat they hadn't identified a problem with the switch - they had been able to get to the internals, and all seemed in good order, so we set off towards Manchester anyway.

 

Typical of the modern buildings as you climb the Rochdale 9

After my shower, and washing David's wet clothes from falling in the canal a couple of days ago. I did my stint on steering, but then told Alan that if he wanted any lunch he needed to take over again

Attractive rail bridge on the Rochdale 9.

I had just taken Alan's sandwich to the back of the boat, and was sitting down to eat mine when I heard a noise that disturbed me. Rushing out to the back of the boat there were three or four boys lobbing fairly large pieces of railway track ballast at the boat as it came under the bridge at the junction with the Rochdale canal. This is always a hazard in urban areas, but we haven't had it happen very often. Alan had been struck by one of the rocks, but fortunately not on his head, which would have caused quite a lot of damage. I grabbed the camera, but they rushed off and hid. This kind of thing sours the day, but there is nothing that you can do about it.

We carried on to Castlefield Basin, in the hope that we might be able to moor in Central Manchester, but there were no spaces left. There was only one thing for it, up the Rochdale Nine to the Dale Street Basin, which is where we will need to set off from early on Monday morning. 

Arrow marks where the River Tib passes under the canal (see below)

Slight problem. A very large trip boat had moored in the entrance to the bottom lock, and was boarding a very large hen party. Young women in flimsy clothing and very high heeled shoes were tripping down the cobbled path to coo at each other and kiss the air. The men with the widebeam boat were not wild about us asking them to move so that we could get up the flight.

Eventually we got into the first lock. This is not an easy flight, so we decided that Alan, who is the most experienced steerer, would stay on the boat, and David and I would work the locks. The dogs would need to get off and walk up the flight with us. I tied them up beside the lock and immediately they were surrounded by young women from the bar by the lock who wanted to pet them. This is bliss for the dogs, they can take any amount of fussing.

This building looks impressive on the street side...

The funny thing about boats, especially historic boats, is that everyone who passes will be an expert about what you need to do. It doesn't seem to occur to them that you might actually have done this before. Our standard practice is to raise the button fender at the front, then take Flamingo up to the gates, having her running in forward gear, with the bows against the gates. This is particularly important going downhill, to prevent her floating back onto the cill - which can be disastrous, and is the most common cause of boats sinking in locks. In this case we were going uphill, but it is still the same, as the boat barely fits into the lock. Alan edged Flamingo up to the upper gates and we shut the lower gates behind the boat. We were just starting to wind the paddles to let water into the lock when a man rushed over to David. "The front of the boat is getting wet, you need to move it backwards." David pointed to the back of the boat at the other end of the lock, "where would you like us to move it back to?" "But the front is getting wet!" said the man. "Yes," agreed David, "it does that."

...but nothing like as impressive at the back!

The Rochdale 9 are pigging awful. Filthy, with poorly maintained paddles and gates and low water levels. There were piles of needles in corners, and everywhere smells of piss. They really are unpleasant and hard work. To make it worse, you can't even walk between all the locks, so the dogs had to be loaded off and on before and after each lock, as they really wouldn't have enjoyed being banged about in boat in the lock as it filled.

Not many factory chimneys left here now

David was interested in looking for and finding the arrow on the coping stones in one of the pounds. This marks the trapdoor into the River Tib which is culverted under Manchester. This is one of Manchester's hidden rivers, but from Roman to Medieval times it was a boundary. There is a wooden trapdoor on the bottom of the canal which can be lifted to empty the pound into the river.





There was a brief moment's interlude. Canal Street, that you pass about half way up the flight is Manchester's 'Gay Village'. There is a fairly high wall along the side of the canal, which people passing up and down Canal Street peer over to watch the boats going past. From the canal you can't see much except the tops of people's heads. There was a fairly raucous hen party sitting outside one of the pubs, and they began screeching loudly. David and I were a little surprised, so stood on the lock gates to see if we could work out what was going on. What we could see was the tattooed torso of a male stripper performing for the hen party. "David, you're taller than me, has he got any kecks on?" I asked. "I can't see," replied David, "I suspect not, given the screaming, but I'm not sure that I want to know."

A select area we are passing through!

At the top of the locks is the basin. There were two boats there already, Tasmania, and Saltaire. We chatted to the people on board them, and discussed that it might be noisy, given that it was Saturday night.

One of the last locks is entirely underground

It was. From early evening there were boys and a few girls sitting on the benches smoking weed. A little later a noisy group of young men arrived to play loud rap music, and drink. They ignored the boats, but it was loud. Then suddenly, at about 11 they disappeared. There were small groups of men sitting around, smoking weed and talking until quite a lot later, but no more noise and we managed to sleep quite well.




Lymm to the top of the "Rochdale 9" in Manchester
Miles 14.8, Locks: 9
Total Miles 158.0, Total Locks:98