North West Passage: Day 19

We certainly got bashed about last night as Storm Aileen hit. We're moored at the end of a very large expanse of water, and during the night when the winds were at their strongest the waves were hitting the side of the boat, the ropes were creaking, and it was difficult to sleep. It hasn't been much better all day, to be honest, and the promises of the wind dying down haven't come true yet. This was from the galley window this morning.

This morning we went over to Media City UK to meet my Radio 2 and 5live colleague Orna, who does the travel news. She gave us a tour of Quay House and we had tea in the staff cafe on the top floor, overlooking the Coronation Street set which is across the Ship Canal. Then we went to the Imperial War Museum North, spending a couple of hours going round the main exhibition and having lunch. It's a very striking building.

There are some impressive bridges across he Ship Canal. The one by the BBC is a swing bridge.

The other, by the Lowry, is a lift bridge. We assume they do actually swing and lift these bridges occasionally -- maybe when the trip boat comes up from Liverpool.

Adrian dropped his phone yesterday and broke the screen, so while he waited for a mobile repair man to arrive, I walked to the very upmarket Booths supermarket to get some fresh food. On the way back I went to find the Blue Peter garden, complete with the bust of Petra which was moved from Television Centre.

The wind down the dock has brought an incredible amount of rubbish down, and it's all collected in the corner opposite where we're moored. It includes wheels and a gas bottle which we watched making remarkably quick progress down the water.

Tomorrow will be another early start, as we have a booking to go back up Pomona Lock, onto smaller waterways again.

0 miles, 0 locks. (214 miles, 131 locks)

North West Passage: Day 18

Another early start this morning as we had an 8am appointment at Pomona Lock. So it was engine on at 7.30 and we reversed out of the basin and turned at the bottom of the Rochdale Canal. Around fifteen minutes later we arrived at Pomona Lock, where the guys from the Bridgewater Canal Company's engineering department were already there. They filled the lock and we went in and then down.

The lock is deep, at about 14 feet. Once the gates were open we went out into Pomona Dock, and then atbthe end of that arm turned right, heading for the upper reaches of the River Irwell. The views towards Manchester were great.

There were still showers about, and there was a complete rainbow over some of the old warehouses.

The official limit of navigation on the River Irwell is right up near Manchester Cathedral, but we'd been warned not to go that far because of shallowness, and there are also major works going on to one of the rail bridges. So we went up to the point where the river was virtually blocked by the work boats and turned around. The flow on the river seemed quite strong, and there were big islands of debris that we had to avoid.

Having turned, we retraced our steps and then continued to Salford Quays. At some point the Irwell becomes the Manchester Ship Canal. The expanse of water looks huge, and the buildings are impressive.

By contrast, some sort of concrete pillar has been colonised by gnomes.

We headed for our mooring, which is next to the Holiday Inn Express, and across from the watersports centre and the Lowry Outlet Mall.

The next excitement was a Tesco delivery, booked to the postcode of the hotel next door. The driver found us without a problem, loaded all the stuff on a trolley, and we took it in through the side hatch.

We went for a walk around the area, and then went to see some of my BBC 6Music colleagues who are based up here and who I've never met. We ended up seeing the start of the Radcliffe and Maconie show going out. I even made a guest appearance.

After some lunch we walked across the Media City footbridge from where we could see some of the locks on the Manchester Ship Canal. The larger of the two is 600ft long.

From the far side of the Lowry Footbridge we could see Briar Rose moored in the distance. You need to look hard.

We went to The Lowry Centre and went up to the art gallery to see the exhibition of Lowry paintings and drawings. It's free and well worth a visit.

Really bad weather with strong winds is predicted for tonight. We're already bobbing up and down more than we're used to, so goodness knows what it's going to be like later!

4 miles, 1 lock. (214 miles, 131 locks)