A spot of bother …

It was a dark, dank morning when we arose and it felt like six o’clock, but was actually half past eight! The dimness today was not just due to the weather; we also discovered that our power supply wasn’t working. This time it wasn’t just the inverter that converts the 12 volts to 240 volts; this was the 12 volt system, i.e. the batteries! The fridge’s red light was flashing red and whenever we turned on the power the warning beep sounded. Not a good look – without power we’d soon not be able to draw water or flush the toilet – OMG!!

 

The Tame River runs through Ashton-Under-Lyne, just beside the canal at this point, not far from our mooring

Barry got to work delving into the depths of the engine compartment, and found the cam belt was broken. Luckily there was a spare in the parts box, but no Alan Key to loosen the nuts, so out came the bike and off he trundled into town and managed to find a pound shop open - lucky as it was Bank Holiday Monday - and bought a set for 99 pence! We were relieved hoping that it was all it would cost us; little do we know …

Once the cam belt was fixed, there was still a problem with a fuse holder wire that had snapped, so on the bike again and down to the Marina about half a mile away. The chap there suggested to Barry that his middle name must be 'Lucky' as he had just the thing needed for five pounds, and again we thought we’d escaped much expense.

On installing it Barry accidently shorted the wire to earth and blew the fuse (I had to get assistance from Barry for that part!), and with no spare on board it was back on the bike to the marina where he informed the marina chap that he was hoping his first name was now 'Third Time'. He didn't have quite the right size fuse, but did have one that would do the job and he didn't charge for it.  Now it was just a case of fitting it, which Barry did without too much trouble, and we imagined our troubles were over ....

The junction of three canals: the Ashton, Huddersfield Narrow and Macclesfield, with the museum to the right

So off we went to the Portland Basin Museum and The Ashton Canal Warehouse, a hundred yards from our mooring http://www.tameside.gov.uk/museumsgalleries – voted the best free day out in Manchester – and it certainly lived up to it’s name. There were numerous activities for the children to keep them occupied for a day, probably one of their final days before returning to school. 

Portland Basin was nicknamed 'Weaver's Rest' as so many weavers drowned themselves there during the famine of 1860 and the depression of the 1930's.  Spookily this museum is normally only open Tuesday to Sunday - it must've only been open today because it was a Bank Holiday - maybe our luck is changing?  And a brass band was playing too ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A mock-up of a 1920's Tameside street with it's old fashioned house, grocer's shop, a haberdashery, fish and chop shop and pub - Sandra's grandma and father ran a fish a chip shop in Huddersfield in the 1930's which would have been similar to this one

"You've got nice eyes Mister!"

 

 

"What do you mean, my round?"

 

 

Got to have a model town complete with moving cars and trains ...

 ... even a coal field and canal

A few 'Photos for Fun' at the museum ...

 

 

   

 

 

The museum from under the bridge, leading up the Peak Forest Canal

The old boats moored out the back of the museum

We headed back to the boat late afternoon after a little excursion to Asda, and decided to move on to give the batteries time to recuperate.  Unfortunately once we got underway it became apparent that nothing was happening and they weren't charging at all.

Barry had run out of ideas and inspiration now, so the only thing left was to travel to the Boatyard which was storing our new portholes that we ordered a week ago, but still more than a day’s journey away.

We travelled a couple of hours up the canal to Hyde and had a candlelit dinner – thank goodness we still had gas to cook with!

We're getting that sinking feeling again!!

A hard day's graft

We opened the curtains this morning to what promised to be a sunny day and I was lulled into believing that I could wear shorts for our lock-day. It went downhill swiftly and before we’d set off just after 10am I’d already changed into my jeans and UG boots! Ah well, such is life in the north west it seems …

Fortuitously there was another narrowboat at the first lock just outside Castlefield Junction, so we shared 'The Rochdale Nine' double locks with them which certainly made life more pleasant! After the first lock the canal becomes the Rochdale (thanks to Starcross for pointing out our previous error!).  These locks are atrocious; many of them don’t even have any gate paddles on them, and of the ones that do most of them are so stiff I thought I’d sustain a hernia if I didn’t watch out!

  The first of 27 locks for the day - exiting Castlefield Junction

The lovely little lock keepers cottage at lock 1

 

Interesting old architecture - row of bars and nightclubs along the canal edge

The locks were also dreadfully leaky and overflowing, apparently this is due to the water running off the Pennines into the canal and the fact that the side channels for the overflows had been built over so there was nowhere for excess water to go. At the front of the lock there's water cascading down – the driver has to be very careful not to get the front deck soaked or the boat could potentially sink. Our partner boat was quite long and they had to drive closer to the leaky end in order to shut the lock gates behind them.  Of course our little Northern Pride was OK, but there were a couple of anxious moments for them …

Newer office blocks everywhere

Some in keeping with the original style

This old lamp post had a gearing system inside; apparently to wind the lamp up & down to light it and extinguish it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Going under a bridge then under the building behind

 

We’re on what’s known as The Cheshire Ring, which many hire boats do in a week; though it’s 120 miles long with 92 locks, 2 aqueducts and four tunnels, so there’s not a lot of opportunity in that time to stop and smell the roses, never mind see the villages and towns along the way.

As we passed by the gay village (there is literally a whole area of Manchester called this - isn't that cool?), with everyone still cavorting around having a whale of a time, we drew a large crowd.  Of course that gate paddle was one of the worst and I had to have help from one of the blokes on the other boat; the only way we could open it was to put two windlasses on and turn it bit by bit in unison

 

No towpath now, passing through the gay village

 

 

 

 

 

The chap with the blog card thought Sandra was trying to chat him up giving him her business card!

 

 

 

 

 

This is the one where Sandra almost got a hernia

 

 

 

 

 

The famous Canal Street and a couple of lovely ladies having a good time.

 

 

 

Achieved an open lock gate at last!, much to the amusement of the crowd!

 

Much of the canal goes under the city

 

Surprisingly quite a clean canal, apart from debris from the Pride festival, especially in comparison to Blackburn!

 

The canal flows straight under this skyscraper emerging into yet another lock

 

 

 

It took us right through the city, showing the variety of buildings, old and new

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Choose your lifestyle; modern but with a traditional design ...

... or maybe modern with a bizarre style??

Once we left the Rochdale Canal and entered the Ashton Canal, we encountered single locks once more – we actually can’t recall the last time we were in them. We’ve been on rivers and broad canals for as long as we can remember now.

 

These locks appear terribly narrow now, diligent driving skills needed in order not to scratch the boat's bottom and sides!

Leaving Manchester on the east side wasn’t quite as pleasant as the approach the other day. Here there is ‘Sports City’ where the Commonwealth games Stadium is, and also Manchester City’s football ground. However it looks as though money has been spent to try and upgrade the area due to the commonwealth games, so it wasn’t too bad.

Manchester City's football ground in the distance at Clayton Locks

The locks at Ancoats (3), Beswick (4) and Clayton (especially the 9 at Clayton I'm reliably informed), are notorious for kids running around and trying to cadge lifts on boats while running through and ‘picking things up’. All the guide books warn you to lock the boat up at the front and not to give lifts to anyone you don’t know.

We let the folks in the other boat go ahead of us as they had a time schedule, and we soon encountered a group of young boys. They were harmless enough I’m sure, but we didn’t offer any boat rides today – it was too blooming cold and was pouring with rain, never mind any other good reasons! The lads helped Barry with the locks, closing the gate after I’d driven through so Barry could run up to the next one, bless them.

 

Steven, Niall, Tyler & Owen (though the order may not be correct!)

At Fairfield Junction, having completed all of the locks, we encountered a larger group of kids who were quite ‘in your face’ and cheeky, and just jumped onto the side of the boat as I left a lock, saying in unison: “Can we have a ride on your boat mister? Please mister, can we have a look inside?” I’d already locked the front of the boat and had the back shut up against the rain, but we had to be a little short with them to get them off the boat rails – we were both tired and freezing by this time and had almost lost any sense of humour! It must be very tempting to them living so close to a canal, I’m sure when I was that age I’d have tried the same thing with my mates as we messed around if I’d lived in a similar place.

 The lowest bridge on this canal system, we took the flag off though nearly lost the plants etc off the top

We finally moored up around nine hours after we’d left this morning, having stopped only once to free some mangy clothing that had wrapped itself around the propeller (poor Barry, that's one of his jobs!). Exhausted and soaked through, we had the radiators on to dry off and get warmed up! A chilled day on the canals, but not in the best of senses!

P.S.  Wednesday 2 September - Sorry for the lack of postings, we've been literally 'powerless' for a few days due to various engine issues that I don't quite understand, so we're behind on the blog but will catch up over the next day or so and reveal all!