Castle Quay, Bridgewater Canal to New Islington Marina, Rochdale Canal.

Travelled 1.9 miles, worked 11 locks in a time of 4 hours 30 minutes.

A damp start to the day with heavy rain early on. The alarm on my phone went off at 6am, but I was already awake.

By 7am we were ready to set off up the 11 locks.

There was no issue with water to begin with, there was so much water it was flowing over the gates, so the rain really was not needed.

There are some lovely buildings along this stretch, and a lot of new developments.

It is a shame that there is quite a lot of rubbish in the water, which was to bite back later in the morning.

Coming out of Princess Lock 87, you then have to stay on the boat to the next lock, because there is no towpath. The locks are not very easy to work, you also have to use an anti-vandal key for the handcuffs devises, which takes time to undo and to lock them back up again. I also found that the lock landings were slippery because of the rain.

Canal Street follows the canal for a distance and this area is known as the gay village.

It is said that the Gay Village in Manchester is without doubt the liveliest area of the city and who am I to doubt it.

We then approached Lock 85, which we had been told by Mark of the trust to be aware that we may meet some people there, who would probably not bother us, but what we may witness may be upsetting. I am a very broad minded person and so was not really that bothered by what we may see.

As it turned out there was only one gentleman there, who looked like he was waiting for someone. There was plenty of evidence on the lock walls that sexual activity had been taking place, but thankfully we did not witness any of it. I have to say the smell was something that hit me though and it was none to pleasant.

At Dale Street Lock Mark from the trust came and saw us to get the banners back we had displayed on our sheeting. He asked if we had had any problems at Lock 85 or at any of the other locks. I told him that on some of the locks the handcuffs were missing, which he said they were aware of and would be rectifying the situation.

We passed the junction with the Ashton Canal and Merchants Wharf. At Brownsfield Lock the rubbish bit back as we came out of the lock. Hadar's engine almost stalled as we picked up something quite substantial on the prop. We pulled alongside a Canal and River Trust motor and hopper, I tied off the centre line and Keith went to work down the weed hatch.

He spent half an hour cutting off a quilted jacket which doubles as a cardigan, he also pulled off plastic bags and string.

We cruised alongside Redhill Street, the pound was very shallow and we hit numerous things in the water. As we turned right into New Islington Marina.

At 10.45am we were then stuck fast and going no where. I got on the phone to Mark from the trust and he sent out a couple of his guys to send some water down to see if we could move.

Because we were going no where, I made us a coffee and got the biscuit box out. 11.45am after some water was sent down we were finally able to move into the marina, where we found our booked mooring with electric and water.

We are staying for the weekend, so I will get my washing done and I may even get the hoover out. I am looking forward to a nice quiet weekend now.