Our Last day in Manchester

After being here on and off for 3 weeks we plan to leave Manchester in the morning.  With Janet and Gerald, on nb Toulouse,we will tackle the Rochdale 9 out of the city and then up the Ashton Canal (18 locks at the last count) and on to the Peak Forest Canal.  Anyway:---

Saturday 10th September

We spent a lovely evening on board with Birgit and Michael after mooring up at Lymm.  At 12.30 in the morning Doug woke James to tell him he thought someone was on the boat.  James rushed outside (forgetting to put any clothes on!) to find a guy walking off up the towpath and quickly realised he had pulled both mooring pins out of the ground and pushed the back of the boat out.  Luckily James was able to jump off and secure the boat before we drifted too far out ( a leap of about 5 feet in the dark – this time with his dressing gown on!).   We guess it was just someone thinking they were having some fun on their way home in Oughtrington from the pub in Lymm.  If it had been windy it might not have been such a great jape but “hey ho” no harm done.  This has never happened to us, even on our last boat ‘Spirit’, but at least we can now look other boaters in the face. 

Sunday 11th September

We left Lymm in the morning and travelled back to Manchester – hoping to get back to port before the hurricane.  It was very windy but we had a pleasant journey meeting both the (very wide) trip boats from Manchester in bridge holes!  One was a blind bridge and (technically) ours because we were there first – and luckily the trip boat stopped very quickly!

We passed nb ‘Seyella’ (fellow bloggers) at Dunham Massey, but Geoff and Mags weren’t aboard..

Michael and Birgit doing very well steering ‘Chance’  towards Manchester.

We arrived back in Castlefield around 1.30pm giving Oscar a well deserved walk around the basin – something he’s been used to of late.

James, Oscar and Michael taking a walk in Castlefield

We then all went to The Ox just off of Deansgate for a lovely Sunday lunch!

Sunday Lunch at the excellent Ox.

We arrived back at the boat at around 5pm and were invited for drinks and nibbles on nb Toulouse and so spent a lovely evening with Gerald and Janet.

Monday 12th September

This morning we said our goodbyes to Birgit and Michael at Deansgate station as they got the train to Manchester Airport to fly back to Frankfurt.

We have spent the rest of the day, getting the washing done at the YHA and food shopping for our trip tomorrow.