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Dot may be right
It was an early start for me on Thursday to catch the train to Manchester, then the bus to Fairfield to reach lock 65 of the Rochdale Canal. This was the meeting point for Epiphany and Gypsy Rover who were to descend the Rochdale Nineteen locks into Manchester. BW staff would meet them at lock 65 to unlock the gates and let them through, then help from time to time during the passage before reappearing to unlock lock 83 to let them out at the bottom. 
Most of the journey was uneventful, just a little hard work at times. Some of the locks have only one paddle – and have only had one paddle since reopening so they were a little slow to operate. There was a little rubbish in the canal resulting in the occasional trip down the weed hatch, but no worse than other urban areas. Derek was sceptical when Dot said the boat was becoming impossible to control and there must be something around the propeller. 
Derek tried steering and announced that "Dot might be right". As soon as the boat was in the lock he opened the weed hatch and he was still there when the lock was empty and was towed out by John on Epiphany. The photo shows the pile of rubbish removed from the propeller when he was only half way through. There was just as much more to come off the propeller. 
Eventually closing the weed hatch and looking at the large pile of rubbish he announced that "Dot was right". So, 15th October 2009 will go down in history as the day Derek announced that Dot was right ;-) The other problems centred around the excess of water flowing down the canal. The paths along both sides of the canal were flooded in two of the pounds, although the weirs at the bywashes were clear of rubbish – so either the weirs are built too high, or the paths too low. 
A few of the locks were difficult to operate when the water was coming in the top faster than the paddles could let it out of the bottom but we eventually managed to open all the gates. I don’t know what has happened at lock 73 but the end of lock beam nearest the camera has been sawn off, making it rather short and hard work to push it open. 3 boats worked down, and 2 boats worked up so it was a busy day on the Rochdale Canal. Posted on Saturday, 17 October 2009 at 13:32 Comments (1)
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Hi Paul
Thanks for all your help, Derek’s not going to admit it again, only smiles. We finish the last 6 locks in Heartbreak Hill this morning and then through Harecastle tunnel this afternoon. Great Haywood by Wednesday!
Comment by Dot and Derek — On 25-10-09 at 09:12