Hitting the Peak

Thursday 25th July

As I mentioned yesterday, we wanted to call in at Dukinfield Junction to get a pumpout, so we only had a short run, about 45 minutes, after leaving our moorings, until we got the the junction, where the Ashton, the Peak Forest and the Huddersfield Narrow Canals all meet.

The Museum at Portland Basin

The start of the Peak Forest Canal at Portland Basin

The pumpout was at Portland Basin marina - Portland Basin is the place where the three canals meet. This was like no marina we have ever seen - it was down a narrow arm between brick walls - essentially just a short dead end of canal with some boats moored on it. We got a pumpout but they told us they didn't do water and we'd have to back to the museum in the Portland Basin. This we did, and we were directed to moor alongside two old boats. Having done that, the owner of the boats appeared and said he had been told not to allow people to do that, for insurance reasons. (As it happens I had slipped on some rotting wood on the gunwale of one of those boats and scraped my shin, so I had some sympathy).

He was in fact very helpful, and apologetic, and he helped us moor with our bow in alongside one of his boats, so I could get the hosepipe to our water inlet. With no further excitement we completed the watering and set off along the Peak Forest canal.

Starting down the Peak Forest

The difference was immediate. The canal travels along the valley of the Tame, which flows far below, and it is wooded in many places. There were no locks today, but a little bit of exercise for me as I had to work a lifting bridge - lifted manually with a windlass handle. It was a fiercely hot day and we were concerned for the dogs; Loulie kept putting wet towels on them and encouraging them to drink. We passed Hyde, and then in Romiley we stopped and I walked to a nearby Aldi to get ice lollies, drinks and some chicken for Minnie. The best bit was that the supermarket was air conditioned, very cold and lovely.

After that we didn't go on very far. We had exchanged the Tame for the Goyt, but again it was flowing far below us on the right hand side. After going though a tunnel (300 yards, very short by our usual standards) we found a mooring in the middle of nowhere, much more our style. We are only a few miles from Marple, but there is a flight of 16 locks to tackle before we get there. For today we moored quite early, about 16:15, and Loulie used her new washing machine for the first time. It is threatening to rain, and indeed we need the clouds to open to clear the air, but so far it is just occasional showers. If it doesn't break it will be a very muggy night.

Mooring near Hyde Bank Tunnel - including a view through the tunnel

TODAY: 6.15 HOURS. 8.2 MILES. 0 LOCKS. 1 BRIDGE.

VOYAGE: 26.25 HOURS. 37.2 MILES. 27 LOCKS. 2 BRIDGEs

Floating on fuel

Wednesday 24th July

I didn't check the engine yesterday morning, because we wanted to make a flying start (best laid plans). So I made a point of opening up the hatch to have a look today. As I did so the first thing I saw was a steady drip-drip-drip, faster than one a second, from a cylindrical item over to one side. I quickly realised that this must be a fuel filter, and what was coming out was diesel. I tried twisting the cylinder, thinking maybe it had unscrewed slightly, but to no effect. Happily, just a short distance up the fuel line was an obvious cutoff switch, which I threw, and the dripping soon stopped.

The leaky filter and the cutoff switch in the distance. Note the pool of diesel.

This, however, was only the start of the problems. As I looked around I could see that several of the compartments around the engine room were full of leaked diesel - including all the battery compartments, where our (highly expensive) batteries were entirely submerged in the stuff. Rather to my surprise our electrics were still working, and the battery control panel was all normal, but I switched off all the isolators and we called NNC. Having explained the problem, and sent them some pictures of the batteries under the surface, they decided we needed immediate assistance. It's a fair way from Nantwich to north Manchester, but I sent him the postcode of a pub by the canal, and he arrived without problems at about half twelve.

I had already identified the root cause - a bleed screw on top of the filter. When I turned on the fuel line you could see it seeping out around this screw, and the rubber washer was visibly perished. The engineer fixed this fairly easily - he had copper washers and some "fuel paste" and most importantly the experience to know how hard he could tighten the screw without stripping the aluminium filter housing.

The big challenge was getting all the diesel out of the compartments, especially the ones containing the batteries. Rather to my surprise the engineer was quite happy to pour it back into the fuel tank, through a funnel with a gauze filter. He had a pressure pump which you could pump up manually and then extract about six litres into the pump body - after which you could pour it out. This was hard and tedious work, given that we would eventually get out well over 100 litres. We filled the tank and there was still plenty more to come, which means the leak must have been going for some time, though obviously not as fast. So we weren't robbed at all, it was just sloshing around beneath the batteries.

It took about three hours, and in the end we filled my two 10l cans, and another three jerrycans which the engineer took away. We reconnected the batteries, which have shown no ill effects, and there is still a fair amount of diesel at the bottom of the compartments - maybe a centimetre - which I will have to soak or wash out.

We finally got under way at about 16:15 and you would think we had earned an easy trip, but you would be wrong. We had ten locks to climb, and they were all very rough - padlocks on all of them, gates which wouldn't stay shut, paddles which wouldn't work, and a pound which was so low that Loulie grounded until I flushed through a lot of water to float her off.  We are not enamoured of the Ashton Canal at all.

Mooring at Audenshaw

Eventually we reached the top of the locks at Fairfield Junction. We didn't want to go too far because we need to get a pumpout at Dukinfield Junction tomorrow, it being much too late by now. So we found a mooring in quite a suburban spot, with many dog walkers to come past and disturb our pack - but we were far too tired to care by then.

TODAY: 3.15 HOURS. 2.2 MILES. 10 LOCKS. 1 Swing Bridge.

VOYAGE: 20.10 HOURS. 29.0 MILES. 27 LOCKS. 1 Bridge

The pound is low (not a Boris Johnson story)

We wanted to get as far through Manchester as we could today, so we made a fairly early start. We pushed on into Altrincham and Sale, and Loulie got out to do a 5km run along the towpath. We got up to Waters Meeting, and turned onto the leg into Manchester, thereby moving into water new to us. We sailed past Salford Quays, with the Lowry and Media City in the distance, then under the shadow of Old Trafford. We reached the end of the Bridgewater at Castlefields Basin, where the Earl of Bridgewater used to unload the coal for Manchester.

The end of the Bridgewater meant that we moved onto the Rochdale Canal, and the difference was immediately obvious. We had to climb a series of locks, all very badly maintained and with minimal conveniences - only one bridge per lock, which means a lot of extra walking for the crew. We were going up through the very centre of the city, past Deansgate and Oxford Road - one lock was literally under a building near the Palace Theatre. Parts of the towpath have been closed, apparently to stop drunks falling in, and everywhere is scattered with the detritus of inner city night life.

On walking up to the sixth lock I discovered a boat ahead of us grounded in the exit - the pound was too low, and as we waited it emptied entirely. It wasn't clear why this was happening - in the end we assumed a combination of poorly fitting lock gates, and low water flow due to minimal traffic. They had called CRT but they never turned up, and in the end we went to the next lock and opened all the paddles to flush water through. This involved climbing over walls, as that lock is not normally accessible from the road. This allowed their boat to creep through, and then it was our turn. We were concerned we might ground half way out of the lock and tip backwards, so we edged forward very carefully until we were out and could close the gates behind us, to retain water in the pound.

There still wasn't enough water and I was stuck, so Loulie went forward, climbed down from the road, and opened all the sluices and the lower lock gates. We were reminded how shallow a canal really is - the water would rise a few inches and I was able to push forward a few yards, then I would stick again. All this was taking place along Canal Street in the centre of Manchester, with hundreds of drinkers from the bars watching over the walls down into the canal. Eventually we scraped into the next lock, which filled slowly, and we were off again. The next few locks were through very dodgy country, with odd characters lurking down the tunnels and hiding from sight. At last we reached Piccadilly Basin and turned off the Rochdale Canal onto the Ashton.

To be honest, this was not a huge improvement on the Rochdale. The major differences were that the locks were single width, and had anti-vandal locks on all the paddles. We have a key but this just adds extra grit to the process - eight extra fiddly processes per lock. Having wasted about three hours scraping through the empty pound at Canal Street we were not going to get to our target tonight, so now we were just looking for anywhere it was possible to moor safely. We passed the Etihad stadium (Man City) and the National Velodrome before finding a bit of bank we could moor to above the eighth lock. There was a factory opposite and a fence behind the towpath, but there was enough grass to hammer in the mooring pins and, at half past eight, that was enough. We fed and watered the dogs, fed and watered ourselves, and went to bed.

TODAY: 11.45 HOURS. 13.5 MILES. 17 LOCKS.

VOYAGE: 16.95 HOURS. 26.8 MILES. 17 LOCKS