Thursday 25th July 2013

The day of the Rochdale Nine. These are nine locks which run through the centre of the city. Not like Amsterdam where the canals are tree lined streets, no these are below the bridges and buildings and some of the locks are in dark tunnels.

We left the mooring at 8.30am and sailed passed the Man. United ground on the way to the locks.

From the first lock you get a dramatic view of the building containing the Hilton Hotel and apartments.

 

I'm not sure if it is still used as a hotel as some of the windows looked broken. We waited for a few minutes at the first lock to see if another boat was going up as we had been advised that it was much better in pairs. For the last few days when fellow boaters have heard our route there have been sharp intakes of breath, shaking heads and comments such as "Do you know about the Rochdale Nine?"  I thought that there was a potential boat at the mooring just before the locks start but when I asked he replied " No, came down last week and once was enough" 

So I entered the first lock and at least there is a good junction sign.

Buildings encroach onto the canal all the way and there is often not enough room for full length beam arms on the lock gates, and a system of pulleys and chains exists. The locks all have anti vandal bolts which need to be undone with a special key. I knew that I would have to drive all the time and Graham would do the locks as I would not have been strong enough to move the machinery. The locks are double so we had the added problem of using the mid rope to keep her steady when the water rushes in. 

After about 3 locks we were getting the hang of it when a boat coming in the opposite direction warned us of unsavoury characters up ahead at the lock which is in a tunnel. We had all the doors locked and the curtains closed but I was very worried when Graham was ahead of me in the tunnel opening the lock and all I could see were shadowy figures. Here is one of the more open vistas!

Well, we survived and moored up in a gated community where you are allowed to stay for 24 hrs. The passing boat gave us the code to get on to street and so after a reviving cup of tea we decided to go into Manchester again as the Art Gallery was open until 9pm and we were actually only a few minutes from the city centre. 

Tomorrow we tackle the Ashton Canal where the problems are stated to be milling children. The doors will be locked again.