After a day off yesterday we today had the delights of travelling down into the centre of Manchester! Eighteen locks and two swing bridges accompanied by quite a lot of plastic bottles and general debris. Six of the eighteen locks had at least one set of winding gear that wasn't working properly. These eighteen locks all have anti-vandal locks which you have to unlock and re-lock on each set of gear (four per lock). We cheated, we were being followed by another boat just one lock behind us, so we left the anti-vandal locks unlocked ready for them. At one lock we met up with a boat who had a carpet caught round their prop. When I got told this at the lock before we reached them by the crew of a boat coming up the flight I imagined a rug or piece of carpet, but it was a carpet, big enough for the average lounge! Two locks after that Ray and I had to haul a 6ft long beam of wood about 12 inches by 6 inches out of the canal!
Eventually we made it to the moorings in Manchester, ready for the climb through, probably, 20 locks tomorrow.
Today's journey 6.4 miles, 18 locks and 2 swing bridges.
So far we have travelled 256.2 miles, 240 locks, 9 swing bridges, 3 lift bridges and 6 tunnels.
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