Back into Manchester

(Boat Flamingo - posted by Cath)

Saltaire and Flamingo about to break out after a hold-up of four weeks.

A 7:30 start. Lynnette didn't have crew for the day, so it was the four of us to move the two boats. This section needs not just windlasses, but also Anti-Vandal keys. Every lock has AV locks on all of the paddles to prevent the local youth from draining all of the water out of the canal. These are fiddly and difficult to use, and you have to remember to lock up all the paddles again as you leave the lock.

 

First lock - we had no idea how hard the first half dozen or so would be.

It started OK, the first lock was fine. In the second lock we got both boats to the bottom of the lock and they wouldn't move, they were on the debris at the bottom of the lock. We couldn't even open one of the gates because Flamingo couldn't go backwards. We had a theory that it might be a little deeper in the middle of the lock, and if not we could 'flush' single boats out if we could open the gates. 

 

This vertical lift bridge is unlike any other canal bridge we have ever used.

So we filled the lock and took Saltaire out of it. Then we emptied it, keeping Flamingo in the middle, and keeping her back just enough that we could open both of the gates. She stuck again, but this time we could open the gates. We tied the gates open to stop them shutting when we started the 'flush', then opened paddles 'flushing' her out of the lock under power. She stuck again just past the bottom gates. We debated, do we flush her again, or do we use the water from the full lock to move her? We went for the second option, and refilled the lock letting Saltaire in. We immediately realised that we had made a mistake. Because there was a bridge below the lock Flamingo was pulled backwards very fast despite being in full chat forwards. We eventually managed to wiggle Flamingo by use of ropes and poles (leaving Lynnette stuck half way down the lock on Saltaire) enough that we could continue emptying the lock. So, one lock, three fillings and three emptyings...

We couldn't have guessed how long to get both boats through this lock.

Our next problem happened about 200 metres further on. In a very wide area we stuck on the bottom in the middle. We couldn't move, we couldn't get off the boat, the dogs couldn't get off the boat. We called CRT who said that it would be an hour or so. So I made toasted crumpets knowing that we wouldn't have time to prepare lunch later on. It was 11 am.

 

Attempting to hold Flamingo into the middle of an emptying lock.

In fact CRT turned up after about 20 minutes. "Are you stuck?" they asked. It turned out that despite this being a long pound it was down by several inches because they had been taking water out to fill empty pounds further down the flight. They got us going by 'flushing' a large amount down from the lock.

 

Newly repaired gate and new quoin stone at lock 66.

Then the dreaded lock 66 that has been the problem for the last four weeks. Fortunately it worked well, the repairs seem fine. However, we needed to single up for the next two locks, because of subsidence. Alan and David went down in the first one, I stayed with Lynnette, but as we went to move into the lock her engine died - a prop foul. It took about 45 minutes of fishing around under the back end with a boat hook, and Lynnette bringing buckets of foul smelling wadding out through the weed hatch. Saltaire is unusual as a historic boat, having had a weed hatch fitted. We thought at first that it was carpet underlay, but the mixture of wadding, springs and scraps of moquette fabric eventually showed that it was an armchair. Some kind council workers who were trimming hedges by the old peoples' bungalows said that they would take the remnants away to prevent it being put straight back in the cut.

Stuck so can't even shut bottom gates, re-float, and try again.

All this time Alan and David had been trying to go down in the next lock. Every time Flamingo got to the bottom it stuck fast on the shopping trolleys and bikes. Every time they refilled a bit, and fished another trolley out with the short shaft. Finally they thought they had got everything out and tried flushing Flamingo out. She stuck fast, halfway out of the gates. They couldn't shut the gates to fill again, they couldn't flush. They tried another Spanish windlass...

 

Another pound where "the tide has definitely gone out"!

We called CRT. Their superior flushing skills moved Flamingo and their grappling hook pulled Manchester's equivalent of a Boris Bike out of the bottom. Saltaire went down needing only a small flush, and we set off again into a seriously depleted pound. The first five locks had taken 7 hours. David pointed out that at that rate of progress we wouldn't finish until the same time the next day. I pointed out that we didn't have a choice. We were in an unsalubrious part of Manchester, and I had no wish to stop until we got to safety in the centre of town.

Very, very shallow - but moving, (just).

We plodded on. Nothing was as bad as it had been in the first half of the day, and we slowly ticked off the locks, one at a time. The paddles were stiff, the gates were hard to move - especially where they had no balance beams and were moved by a system of chains and pulleys that had to be wound with a windlass. At some point David put some cheese between sliced bread - I dropped most of my cheese on the ground so the dogs got it. 

 

The local "yoof" were all over the boats here, but have now left us.

A mile or so out of central Manchester there is an attractive park in the middle of a housing estate. Being a pleasant evening there were families around, as well as crowds of youths. I went down to the next lock down to get it ready for the boats. A couple of lads saw the boats and opened the gate on the other side of the lock. "Thanks, Lads!" I called. Another boy came up and shut the gate. "That needs to be opened, leave it as it is" I called, politely. "No, it needs to be shut" was his reply. His friends said "the boat's coming". "Fook the boat!"

He was intent on shutting the lock, they wanted to open it. I said, "OK, don't worry, I'll get my son to do it". 

"Where is your son?"

"Up at the next lock, the tall one."

"Fook!" he said, shutting the gate again.

"No, problem, I'll come and do it," I said as I finished opening the gate on the other side. "Fook! Dogs!" he said as he ran away.

This is not a canal boat, it is a shed on a large floating skip.

After this lock David went on to the next lock with the boats. I finished shutting up, locking the anti-vandal locks and then started to head down the short distance to the next locks. The crowd of 15 or so boys had gathered by that lock, and three of them had started to jump on the roofs of the boats. From one side of the lock onto one of the boats, then onto the other boat, then onto the lockside only to turn around and do it again. This is irritating, but also dangerous, if they fall they can end up caught between the boats and crushed. It is not unusual for people to die in locks (often hire boaters who try something a bit dodgy), and a few years ago a boy persisted in riding his bike over a narrow bridge over a lock in Stourport, despite being warned by passers by. He fell into the lock and drowned. Nobody else seemed to have the cure to this behaviour to hand - a camera. As I ran up shooting photos in every direction they pulled their t-shirts up over their mouths and ran as fast as they could into the estate shouting "FOOK!". Only one photo came out, but no problem, they didn't know, but it stopped them. 

One from last lock of the day - nobody sleeping rough under the bridge this time.

We finally went through the last lock just before 9:00 pm. Lynnette opted to stay in Ducie Street basin, which is where we had stayed on the way up. As it was Saturday night and the previous time we had stayed there had been very noisy on the Saturday we went a short distance onto the Ashton Canal where we reversed our way into Thomas Telford Basin - which is in the middle of a locked estate of houses and apartments. Peace and quiet.

At 9 o'clock, having had a very tough 13 and a half hour day I started cooking dinner - and we opened the gin that Alan and I had bought at Asda on Thursday evening, when we still had a car available to shop with.

Chadderton to Thomas Telford Basin, Manchester
Miles 7.1, Locks: 20
Total Miles 220.1, Total Locks:262