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Good Samaritans on The Rochdale


Gyptian

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Yesterday we left Manchester Piccadilly Basin and headed for The Rose Of Lancaster, several times on the way I had to get down the weed hatch to remove plastic bags and various items of clothing. Then I got to lock 66, which I think was the lock where a boat had some problems with youths a week or so ago, and my engine stopped instantly. I went down the hatch again only to find a blue nylon rope and some kind of material had completely wrapped itself around the prop . After about half an hour of trying to get this stuff off, a young guy on a bike approached me with a junior hacksaw and asked if it would be useful, I thanked him and said I'd give it a try. He then took off saying he hoped it would help and to hang onto it. I gave it a try but I was really struggling to get anywhere. I decided to ring Canal and River Rescue and put the kettle on. After a while I rang them back and the engineer was still on another job and they couldn't say how long he would be. It was decided to pull the boat into the next lock and tie up to the boat we were travelling with. On pulling the boat, I became grounded and couldn't move, we didn't want to risk the other boat getting grounded by backing out of the lock and at this point three young lads who were fishing saw me struggling with the rope and asked if they could help. They grabbed the front rope and back ropes with me on the centre rope and between us we managed to get the boat free and into the lock. I would like to say to anyone who is contemplating this journey, the amount of rubbish in the canal from Manchester to The Rose of Lancaster is ridiculous however the locals were very friendly and very helpful.

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When I did it a couple of years ago I had no problems with depth and nothing on the prop! The only minor issue was local youths wanting me to fill the lock above The Rose of Lancaster so they could swim in it! Sounds like it has got worse or may be I was just lucky.

 

I hope you are all OK now Gyptian.

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15 hours ago, Gyptian said:

After about half an hour of trying to get this stuff off, a young guy on a bike approached me with a junior hacksaw and asked if it would be useful, I thanked him and said I'd give it a try

It does seem a little odd that a 'random young-guy on a bike' would just happen to be carrying a Junior Hacksaw.

I wonder if (as the Police would say) he was 'going equipped' ?

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13 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

It does seem a little odd that a 'random young-guy on a bike' would just happen to be carrying a Junior Hacksaw.

I wonder if (as the Police would say) he was 'going equipped' ?

Or maybe he's a lad like I used to be who takes joy in mechanism and things that take shape in the hands of the craftsmen he aspires to join.

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1 hour ago, NickF said:

When I did it a couple of years ago I had no problems with depth and nothing on the prop! The only minor issue was local youths wanting me to fill the lock above The Rose of Lancaster so they could swim in it! Sounds like it has got worse or may be I was just lucky.

I suspect you were lucky! It must be more like four years since we did it and we encountered several very low pounds requiring water to be let down, and had to stop maybe half a dozen times to get several carrier bags and a sweater off the (outboard) prop. 

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We did the Rochdale this July. We had a handful of weedhatch visits, a couple of low pounds which needed filling, the occasional grounding, and no harm from the friendly locals. Was it worth the effort? Absolutely; and in a way it wouldn't have felt like the Rochdale without a few stories to tell! It's a unique and fascinating canal which has to be on everyone's "must do" list.

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5 hours ago, rgreg said:

We did the Rochdale this July. We had a handful of weedhatch visits, a couple of low pounds which needed filling, the occasional grounding, and no harm from the friendly locals. Was it worth the effort? Absolutely; and in a way it wouldn't have felt like the Rochdale without a few stories to tell! It's a unique and fascinating canal which has to be on everyone's "must do" list.

Must have been doing it at the same time as you. Same experience but a couple of things to add. Had some help from one CRT vounteer plus a digger driver on a local building site helped my wife holding the boat when I was down the weed hatch and, lastly a number of comments from locals about "where did all that come from?", to which I made a gentle reply.

As far as we are concerned, ticked the box and no longer on the list.

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On ‎21‎/‎09‎/‎2017 at 16:16, Gyptian said:

Yesterday we left Manchester Piccadilly Basin and headed for The Rose Of Lancaster, several times on the way I had to get down the weed hatch to remove plastic bags and various items of clothing. Then I got to lock 66, which I think was the lock where a boat had some problems with youths a week or so ago, and my engine stopped instantly. I went down the hatch again only to find a blue nylon rope and some kind of material had completely wrapped itself around the prop . After about half an hour of trying to get this stuff off, a young guy on a bike approached me with a junior hacksaw and asked if it would be useful, I thanked him and said I'd give it a try. He then took off saying he hoped it would help and to hang onto it. I gave it a try but I was really struggling to get anywhere. I decided to ring Canal and River Rescue and put the kettle on. After a while I rang them back and the engineer was still on another job and they couldn't say how long he would be. It was decided to pull the boat into the next lock and tie up to the boat we were travelling with. On pulling the boat, I became grounded and couldn't move, we didn't want to risk the other boat getting grounded by backing out of the lock and at this point three young lads who were fishing saw me struggling with the rope and asked if they could help. They grabbed the front rope and back ropes with me on the centre rope and between us we managed to get the boat free and into the lock. I would like to say to anyone who is contemplating this journey, the amount of rubbish in the canal from Manchester to The Rose of Lancaster is ridiculous however the locals were very friendly and very helpful.

If I had been doing this section in company with a boat that got stuff completely wrapped round the prop, I would just have taken them in tow - for the rest of the day if necessary.

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30 minutes ago, David Mack said:

If I had been doing this section in company with a boat that got stuff completely wrapped round the prop, I would just have taken them in tow - for the rest of the day if necessary.

That's exactly what happened . The River rescue guy met us at Morrisons , cleared the prop and we headed off to the rose of lancaster

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I've not had any bad experiences other than rubbish on the prop and low pounds. Saw you moored in Littleborough last night, have fun going up the hill. If you go to the coop this morning look out for the tall chap promoting Littleborough Arts Festival, that will be me!

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On 9/22/2017 at 09:11, rgreg said:

We did the Rochdale this July. We had a handful of weedhatch visits, a couple of low pounds which needed filling, the occasional grounding, and no harm from the friendly locals. Was it worth the effort? Absolutely; and in a way it wouldn't have felt like the Rochdale without a few stories to tell! It's a unique and fascinating canal which has to be on everyone's "must do" list.

Ditto in August, zero problems except a couple of low pounds but never went hard aground -- even the Rochdale bridge trolls were friendly, possibly related to the clouds of aromatic smoke surrounding them. In ten days doing the HNC/Rochdale ring we didn't need to use the weed hatch once ;-)

Edited by IanD
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8 hours ago, IanD said:

Ditto in August, zero problems except a couple of low pounds but never went hard aground -- even the Rochdale bridge trolls were friendly, possibly related to the clouds of aromatic smoke surrounding them. In ten days doing the HNC/Rochdale ring we didn't need to use the weed hatch once ;-)

The 'bridge trolls' had smoked it all?:unsure:

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12 hours ago, Taslim said:

The 'bridge trolls' had smoked it all?:unsure:

You may jest, but I once turned up at a lock on the Rochdale full of bin bags containing cannabis plants.  Somebody called the police (not me!) and they actually commandeered my boat to recover those which had floated away down the cut.  I posted the pics on here at 4he time.

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On the run from Piccadilly up to the Rose of Lancaster, I think every passerby (or bridge troll) was emitting a certain scent -- not that I've got anything against that if it keeps them happy and peaceful, unlike Special Brew. I did think this stretch of the Rochdale was a lot more pleasant than the corresponding stretch of the Ashton coming in, which fewer people seem to complain about -- maybe because it's a lot busier?

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