2023Later in the year ... The project to write a biography of Sam Springer is moving on apace. I Spent September on the Leicester Arm in the vicinity of Market Harborough North Kilworth and Foxton living between the boat and the Peterborough flat.
2023 
The original plan had been to crane out and hard stand for "The Winter" defined in my case as the end of December 2022 til "Easter" which in 2023 was early in April.  This was part of a plan connived and agreed with the marina way back at the start of 2022.  Instead of going back in the water I would be craned onto a lorry and be dropped in somewhere in the Midlands not a million miles from Braunston.

In the event Easter came and went but the boat stayed.  I got very used to marina wintering.  I had mains power to charge computers and the boats batteries. I would never have to run my engine although the option was always there.  The solars helped when or if the sun shone and actually it shone surprisingly often.  I had enough charcoal to run my bedroom heater through an average winter but we got a mild one.

I have been living off-grid for years but always had a landhouse back-up and wondered what would I need to do if I lost that option. I had long ago discovered a 'service wash' and had stopped lugging my smelly clothes home on my occasional visits for a bath and a bit of gardening.  Most or all of my writing while on the boat was done in adjacent libraries and my onboard laptop charged as I worked.   I kept a separate a computer at home and the house had WiFi and Alexa.  

During my marina winter a plan was formulated to become totally independent of landside electronically and basically it meant I would need to set up an onboard WiFi and figure how to charge my laptops and devices without using mains or a generator.  I discovered no-one with onboard WiFi had it sorted the way I wanted it.  However a Poynting aerial was mentioned at an early stage as very desirable and it took little investigation to settle for the 600 model.  I avoided PRC by opting for a Telekonika router which is powered by 12v out of the box. I could see no reason for a mast so the Poynting was set vertically at deck height in a way that permitted quick lowering for bridges.

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The 24v supply needed to charge laptops was achieved by a Norwegian "Mascot 8600" device from RS Components.  For extra 'safety' I included a voltage smoother from CoCar and the dedicated circuit is fed directly from the main fuse and the leisure batteries. 
2023 
Pentargon was ashore for FOUR months out of sight of goblins, trolls and enumerators.  She left C&RT waters at Christmas with a cunning plan to magically re-appear in the West Midlands for Summer cruising.  Having achieved that objective I found a butty for Pentargon at Hillmorton, a dream i have been harbouring for about five years.  "Sea Salt " is a Wavey Rider Wanderer 557.  

In other news, I have finally completed the purchase of an East Midlands Land-Cave  to store a large library and a small wardrobe... set up a land cave for researching Market Harborough and have a place to write memoirs before a ticket is needed for Fiddlers Green

August 2023
For Linda and John from God's Own Country taking TILTS through Crick in the early morning of Sunday 6th August 2023.  They found me whistling to dissipate the humid gloom and burn off the cloud so I could get a bit of solar to fire up my trusty computer.  We bantered and told stories about folk song and folk music and they recorded my interpretation of the Dublin ballad "Twangman's Revenge" before sailing off into the sunrise. ("Twang" was butterscotch sweets in 19th century Dublin!)


2022.
Went up the Lee navigation and stayed through a very hot Summer.  August I drifted south and arrived at  Limehouse in  September to progress during October along the Regent's canal fetching up at KingsX before Halloween to find a 'long-term mooring' close to a library.  BL just down the road. Pancras Square across the canal.  Waitrose 200m What's not to like?  Diesel tank has 75litres of sparkling clean fuel.  Water tank 'full'. One unused gas bottle and the one in use .  Hampshire is well-stocked with flue-heater meths.  Entering Nov. I was also entering my last bag of Rahims and as of 30th Nov. that bag was almost used up.  Being on the boat 24/7 eats into fuel in cold weather.  Darkness means leisure batteries get a pounding as there is less sunshine to feed the solars.  I invested in some Varta Duals to ensure STORAGE because the leisure bank developed a leaky cell.  Storage matters on a boat.  Storing lecky for many day's use matters when late Nov brings lots of overcast and little sun.  Storage also matters when you are buying up stores now for next year and squirrelling provisions away in dark bilges and drawers.  ​


2021
Seven days a week on board in central London as of April1, the pandemic seems to be getting worse rather than better.  The heater works perfectly and I have taken delivery of enough charcoal to keep me warm til Summer.  Passing Alperton in December I  got  a new bottle of gas from Tomek on Indus for my cooking and another at Paddington in April.  Over 50 litres of diesel stored, apart from what is in the tanks.  ​The 'new' solar panel is twice as powerful as the last one and if it gets even a bright sky can show line voltage 12.8vdc.  The engine starts instantly every time.  Pentargon returned to East London after a five month voyage to Uxbridge and Watford via Bulls Bridge and Hayes.  I survived a massive fall from a boat  roof at Hayes in August21 I should write about ?? 
Revert to Muddy Brown Water

Survival at All Costs
Or at No Cost At All