Manchester again - in the rain

The weather forecast was for heavy rain all day, and we had a journey of 20 locks and 7 miles to complete as we had booked a slot for the "Rochdale 19" locks through which passage is only permitted with British Waterways supervision.

As we had to be at the starting point for BW supervision - lock 65 - by 8:30am, we got up before 6:00am with the aid of an alarm clock (first time on our boat!) and started the 3 mile journey to lock 65 at 6:30. We arrived at 8:00, a reasonable time as we also had a lock and a lift bridge to negotiate. Fortunately there was no rain despite the forecast.

The BW guy arrived early at 8:15 and we set off immediately he had removed the chains from the lock gates. The journey was not easy as there was plenty of rubbish in the canal and some locks only had one working paddle which made emptying the lock rather slow. Also, there was considerable water flowing down the canal, many of the lock gates were overflowing and the by-washes which take excess water from above a lock into the pound below were flowing in torrents. We were however greatly aided by BW who preset all bar one of the locks leaving the gates open for us to drive straight in.

By 12:00 the rain had started, it continued for the rest of the journey. Our wet weather gear is OK for light use but not really suitable for persistant heavy rain so we were starting to get wet. BW staff helped us through the final 3 locks as the flow of water down the canal was flooding the pounds which they needed to drain by opening up the locks. We moored at 14:15 just below the final lock in the middle of Manchester and quickly changed our wet clothes and put on the boat's central heating.

Overall the journey was not as bad as expected. The rubbish was disappointing but we only had to stop twice to remove plastic bags and a length of fishing line. The few locals around seemed friendly. BW were helpful. However this is a stretch of canal to drive through to the other end, there is little of interest to delay a boater and few places where one would wish to stop.