I now accept that my info was out of date, but (in my defence) it was only in the last year or so that I read the advice so I must have been looking at an out of date set of guidance even though it was new and gave the impression that it was still the case.
When I travelled down there some 20 years ago we didn't have any trouble either, even though it was being touted as bandit country then, but we did get our run down from Ashton fairly early before the little darlings got bored and decided to plague the boaters - and the following day we heard yet another flooding of the hospital had taken place (not us leaving the paddles open!!!) I still recommend Castlefield though, apart from its central location and convenience, even if there is no likelihood of trouble, the lights, cameras, etc do help boaters to feel more safe and confident. DaveD -----Original Message----- From: Martin Clark <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Tue, 31 Aug 2010 16:36 Subject: Re: [canals-list] Overnight mooring in Manchester Dave Dobbin wrote: The usual advice is to stop out near Ashton under Lyne (Portland Basin?) overnight and get a fairly early start to get to the lock flight by about 0am. There is, or used to be, an escorted passage down the locks. Sorry, Dave, but you have just proved what I sometimes say - that the isleading advice and tales of horror about the Ashton Canal are usually spread about by people who have not been there for years. It is more than ten years since BW did escorted passages of the Ashton. t has improved enormously since your last visit. There is no longer any eed for escorted passage or for early starts. I was at Portland Basin n Monday and there were boats doing the Cheshire Ring heading off owards Manchester at 4.00 pm, so they would probably have reached iccadilly at around 8.00 pm and had no trouble en route. The usual advice now is to treat it in the same way as you would treat oating through any other urban area - a few sensible precautions but no ig deal. -- artin Clark Pennine Waterways Website http://www.penninewaterways.co.uk ----------------------------------- Yahoo! Groups Links Individual Email | Traditional http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
