Down the Rochdale Nine

Yesterday (Sunday) we carried on into Manchester. We don't do early starts so it was 11.00 when we got to the top lock which takes you down underneath Dale Street and the Malmaison Hotel.

Usually it's very smelly down there as it's a very popular sleeping place for the tramps and alky's but this time it wasn't too bad. Presumably they're all sleeping outside at the moment as the weather is so nice.

It was very quiet through Canal Street and even though it was almost midday the bars were only just setting up their tables and chairs overlooking the canal.

A bit further down the canal we found some of the tramps camped beside the lock. The one sat up in the middle was totally out of his head on some dubious substance and actually keeled over while we were waiting for the lock to empty. I felt sorry for their two dogs and left a pile of dried dog food on the lock side. Yes, I know, I'm just a big softie.

There are some lovely city centre apartments and bars along this stretch of canal.

This is our son James helping with the locks.

Roger doesn't let me work the locks at the moment, but when he wasn't looking I snuck off the boat and closed one of the gates.

This was one of the bars along Deansgate Locks, beside lock 91.

The last lock of the day is right beside Dukes 92 bar and restaurant and as it was a sunny Sunday they had 2 huge BBQ's going. The smell of chargrilled steak drove Chico wild.

This was Katie pretending to drive the boat while I nipped off to take the photo.

It's one of the heaviest locks on the canal and it took both of them to shift the gate.

Beetham Tower in the background. The water levels were lower than we've seen before but still high enough to pour over the top gates.

Chico's such a poser! He was a bit put out that he had to stay on the boat while we went to The Wharf for lunch. It's a dog friendly pub but it was too busy to take him and expect him to behave with so many other dogs there.

One meat platter and one seafood platter......between four of us....perfect after a 3 hour trip. The beer was pretty good too!

If you're in the area next weekend the Wharf are celebrating their 1st birthday with live music and BBQ's all afternoon.

First locks of the year

Yesterday we had a day out, driving into Manchester to help our friend David bring his boat up the Rochdale 9. The weather could have been better but we had a good time none the less.

I know it's very built up and there's always quite a bit of rubbish in the water, but I really like this section of canal. There's always lots to see and always something new each time we pass this way. I particularly like the way it keeps disappearing underneath the tall buildings but I wish these tunnels didn't smell so bad.

This reed shelf looked new

A clever Canada Goose had built her nest in a very secure spot, about 6 feet above the canal and in direct view of a CCTV camera.

So what do two men do when they've not seen each other for months?  Stand around gossiping, leaving me to hover in mid channel until they notice that the lock is empty. Every lock was set against us and by the time we got to the top both men were starting to ache. Perhaps the Rochale 9 aren't the best ones to do as first locks of the year.

I really enjoyed steering Wye Knot. It's been a long time since I drove a 57ft boat and it was much easier getting the shorter boat onto the landing stage in Canal Street than it is in our 65 footer.

Canal and River Trust - turbo-charged response

On Wednesday when we were coming up Lock 91 on the Rochdale Canal Roger noticed that the ratchet on one of the top paddle gears was loose and working it's way off the spindle ready to fall in the water, so he phoned the local C&RT office to report it.  By the time we'd left the lock and arrived at the next, no more than 15 minutes, the maintenance guys had arrived to fix it! We've had fast response from C&RT  to other maintenance problems this year so I'd urge you to report anything you come across.  After all, if they don't know there's a problem how can they fix it?

Yesterday we left New Islington Marina, dropped back down the 2 locks on the Rochdale canal and then Roger worked us up the 18 locks of the Ashton Canal.  We didn't have any problems apart from low water in the top 3 pounds. This had been caused by a convoy of 5 Claymore hire boats coming down the locks on their way back to their base at Preston Brook. The pounds hadn't had time to recover from having 5 lock-fulls of water taken from them in rapid succession so we just let some down to raise the level a couple of inches to stop us dragging on the bottom.

We're now moored in Portland Basin Marina again and will probably move again tomorrow ready to go up Marple Locks on Sunday before the winter stoppage.

New Islington Marina

It was Roger's turn to work the locks today while I drove. We would have liked to share the locks, and the work, with another boat as we'd done a couple of weeks ago when we came down the Rochdale 9 with David on Wye Knot 2 but there was no-one about when we set off this morning.

As usual the water was rushing over the gates at lock 92 but we weren't in any rush so took our time and went up slowly.

I like retracing our steps over sections of canal and lock flights as the view's different and you see things you didn't spot when going the other way. These arches under the railway bridge weren't as noticeable last time but are quite a beautiful piece of engineering architecture.

Deansgate is one of the main shopping streets in Manchester and the traffic is always very busy. It's one of the nice things about being on the boat that you can just go underneath the traffic jams with a smug smile on your face.

This was another tunnel under the shops.

The water jet coming into the canal from the right bank is really powerful and I'd remembered it from last time, so I stayed back until Roger had the lock gate open and then went in on full power to avoid being pushed into the bridge side.

Once up the Rochdale 9 we made a detour up 2 more locks on the Rochdale Canal and turned into New Islington Marina.  This is the "famous" new bridge that has reputably cost £4 million.

It has writing on it's underside that can only be read as a reflection in the water.  It's supposed to read "cast no shadow" but as it's always windy here and the canal is seldom calm enough to see any reflection it seems a huge waste of money to me.

The marina is now fully occupied and even the visitor moorings were full, but Ben the mooring warden/park keeper found us a spot right outside the Boaters Hut which houses the laundry and shower. It's only for one night and we'll carry on again tomorrow.

This family of swans arrived almost as soon as we'd moored up. They were very persistent and pecked at the boat until I gave in and fed them. Once they'd had their fill of swan pellets they left us and went to pester another boat.

Rochdale Nine

Today we carried on into the centre of Manchester, down the famous Rochdale Nine locks. Some boaters find them extremely hard work but while I wouldn't recommend them for absolute novices, we didn't have any problems.

This was the first lock which was to take us underneath these buildings in Piccadilly.

One of the problems with the Rochdale Nine is the sheer volume of water that passes down the flight. It pours over the top gates so you need to keep the boat well forward or risk it getting wet.  It's also a bit of a nuisance when you're trying to open the top gates on some of the locks as the pound level is higher than the top of the gates which means you really need 2 people to push the gate open.

The lock area underneath Piccadilly used to be frequented by rent boys and drug dealers but nowadays it's been cleaned up and there's CCTV everywhere.

There's some nice graffiti art down there too. This was just one of the pics.

There's no towpath between the locks at either end of Canal Street but there is a floating pontoon so you can get on or off the boat quite easily, although we had to breast up the 2 boats as the pontoon is quite short.

A few of the locks have windlass operated winches which use chains to open or close the lock gates as there isn't enough room for full length lock beams.

Lock 88 took us underneath Oxford Street.

Just as you exit the lock there's a very powerful jet of water coming into the canal. It's so powerful it pushed Wye Knot 2 sideways into the bridge.

Most of the canal is overshadowed by high dingy looking buildings but there are a few green areas. Someone here was obviously a bird fan, along with the duck house there was a small dovecote. We saw a kingfisher and there were bat boxes under one of the railway bridges.

This is the bar and club area in the railway arches alongside Deansgate Locks.

We finally made it into the bottom lock no. 92 two and a half hours after we set off.

I was a bit apprehensive after hearing all the horror stories, but we had a good run and I'd certainly do it again.  We'll be coming back up the Nine in a few weeks to get back up to the Macc. before the stoppages on the Marple Flight.

We're now moored in Castlefield and will carry on again in the morning.