WHEELOCK is where I am and have been for the past ten days or so.  Sitting on the aqueduct over the Mill Stream which starts a mile or so north in Sandbach and is a tributary of the Wheelock which meanders west and north through Middlewich and empties into the Weaver right in the middle of Nantwich. 
Wed5th and I had my second deep tissue massage in Oracle Kidsgrove and I am well satisfied. Next session 19thAug 1oc. I have my ticket to flat ready and depart Crewe at 1713 arr Pboro 2015? A trip to Cambridge is in prospect to pick up my books and I have a return ticket Peterborough to Crewe Tues 11th dep 1258?

It is 9th July at Westport Lake and, I am sure, at many other places in this sceptred isle in the midst of the latest heatwave  but fear not: the boat is rested under some very large beech trees which are shading it from the midday sun right unto sunset and even though the cabin is reading 28C there a light breeze on the towpath and my deck chair is out while I enjoy a cloudless sky and consider my options. 

This is a best mooring with bus stops less than 5mins walk from the boat and a frequent service to Tunstall and Newcastle until 6pm and a little later if I am careful. Bus services in the Stoke area tend to generally collapse from about 6.30pm on and after 7pm forget it. 

Tesco is reachable by taking a short ride to Tunstall and changing to the Crewe bus which runs every half hour and if I take the opposite direction 103 from that stop  it lands me in Hanley bus station within twenty minutes.

I have been unable to find a place to glaze Wavy and it is is likely that I will not so c'est la vie. I will just have to remain optimistic that as I get closer to Chester and the Wirral I may get lucky. meanwhile we make haste slowly and I will leave the rig here to get home at or after the weekend using a butt of a ticket bought almost a month ago the return half of which expires on 17th. 

When I get back to the boat next time I'll shoot Harecastle and leave the Potteries behind after Kidsgrove. 

Being now the 29th Jul Harecastle was shot some time ago and I fetched up for a while at Hardings Wood Junction where I shipped almost 100 litres of diesel and when the locks were unlocked I dropped down some sixteen of Heartbreak Hill to Wheelock where as the month's  end I reside.  The stretch remains closed ufn and I find myself in an excellent village as defined.  within spitting distance of two buses either of which take me to Crewe one way or Sandbach t'other where they split with one going to Maccesfield and t'other going to Northwich via Kings Lock at Middlewich, a potential destination if the cut ever opens again.

'IstJune was a Monday and British Gas were in early to fit a new smart meter in the flat finishing in time for me to get the 09.44 bus to the station and catch the 10.20 Nottingham train where I switched to the Uttoxeter train via Derby and landed in Tesco Utt. at 13.10 to get some provisions before boarding the 63 bus to Rugely and then the 828 to Colwich to board and total rest overnight. 

2ndJun Tuesday resting at Colwich. To the local pharmacy to leave in my testosterone prescription filled whenever. Gobsmacked to be told he would expect to have in before midday tomorrow.  I walked up to AngloWelsh for a bilge pump and went back to the boat to stay overnight in the knowledge that tomorrow I travel BACK to the flat to get ready for Lymington. 

3rdWed I collected my prescription at 11.52 and had a nightmare journey back to Peterborough where I eventually arrived at 18.15 for a bath and pack for the morrow's very complicated train journey which would start by catching a train from Peterborough at 10.23 and travelling via Huntington, Blackfriars, tubes during a tube strike, Waterloo to Brockenhurst and finally Lymington town to be picked up by sister in her electric Audi and driven to Compton House

Thu4 Fri5 Sat6 Sun7 are a blur but on Friday I took the Lymington to Yarmouth ferry at 9.40 and bussed it via Newport to Cowes and back arriving on Lymington quay at 1630 again being picked up by Catherine.  Sat6 was a crazy house party with over 100 guests and it rained all day.  Sun7 was frogmarched to Spoons and later to B's and eventually back to Compton House for total rest but with a fancy lunch at Lymington YC. Mon8  11.59 train and a backwards trip via Kings cross where I note I was checking milk out of Waitrose at 1542. 

Because I had lymph drainage treatment booked in Whittesley for Thursday 11th so I was able to make my philosophy class on Tue 9th 7pm to 9.30 with a grateful lift home with Nick.  On Wed I did a dry run to Whittesley to make sure it was all do-able ... which it was but don't mention the rain. I had  Spoons breakfast in the Crown while waiting soaked for a 33 to take me home where about 2oc I had a hot bath to thaw out 

Fri12 I was on the 9.28 train for Uttoxetor via Notts and Derby and 63 and 828 buses to boat Arriving on the boat at 1600, I decided to depart at once and got as far as Aston top before 8pm to overnight there and enjoy the silence 

Sat13 I set out at 6.15am with two miles to go to Star lock and then another mile to Stone bottom where I tied up at 8.30am for coffee and acclimatization and arrange for Pentargon to be taken in to the boatyard Thurs 18. Sat was spent 'resting' and getting to know local bus routes. Sunday is a day of enforced rest in the Potteries as the Sabbath is largely respected. I took a bus to "Hanley" which is a suburb of Stoke and in the reality is the city's bus station

Monday15 was spent travelling back to Peterborough. I had arranged for British Gas to call  s Tue16 1400 and this was achieved with a bouquet of tickets bussing to Stafford and routing by Burton on Trent and Derby through Notts and Grantham on the Norwich train. The flat was sorted and also the delivery of the TotalCool to the boatyard and I am ticketed to Stafford on Wed. to be ready for the boatyard. I arrived back in Stone midday and brought the boat up and into the boatyard before 3.30pm which all told was quite an achievement.  It was finished and out on Thursday by 3pm and a first class job was done for about £350.  So I thought I would climb a few locks before dark. 

THERE IS A WHOLE DAY MISSING HERE IT GOT ERASED AND LOST DURING EDIT
For the moment let's just say I spend much of Friday in A&E but was able to return to the boat  fixed about 4.30 and grabbed an open lock and by 6pm was parked up in company at Barlaston for the night and was away by 7 on Saturday morning to climb Trentham after emptying it and get tied up in a first class mooring at B106 by 8.30

Saturday then I was all parked up on Armco at 8.30am for breakfast and this will now be a stop-over to recover from the hospital ordeal ... and regroup due to a pending murderous heatwave starting Monday and getting worse day by day.  I managed to get a considerable amount of diamonds done in the very early mornings. I had some tree-cover for much of the day but the cabin temperature registered 28C on the evening Sunday.  Nothing to do only grin and bear it because I am going no further now til York is over. 

I had an aborted attempt at getting a train on Thu25th survived the heat wave and left the boat on Friday 26th being afraid the whole transport system might collapse for a 1330 train out of Stafford but actually travelled to Nuneaton on the 12.30 and got to NUN to find I could use any train or line that would get me home so I arrived back in the flat about 4pm to settle in

Fri 

Friday 19th was a bit of a disaster

May was a very busy month.  I moved from Nuneaton on the Coventry to Fazely Junction to join the Trent and Mersey and got to  Rugely before the month ran out and left it there for almost a fortnight due pressure of business. Cambridge and book binding also featured as did my philosophy classes on Tuesdays. I note that on Sunday 31st I was in Boston Lincs for the day, while the following day British were scheduled  

April5 is Easter, spent at the flat with the boat by Hinkley marina where it would spend some time. I had a tooth extracted in Coventry on 30th March and I appear to have arrived by some devious route which may have been all buses via Leicester and Melton Mowbrey Stamford? at Queensgate late in the evening from the boat. 
7th April I returned to the boat and "set out immediately for Marston Junction to couple the boats and go up the Coventry towards Nuneaton and tied up at B19 overnight 
9th April moved the boats up to Nuneaton Waterbridge Gardens to return to flat to go to Cambridge to find the bookbinder 

https://www.pentargon60906.co.uk/pentargons-blog/archives/03-2026 

It has been an interesting start to the month with my having a CFS crash and getting my exhaust fixed and the boats recoupled in the dying days of February.  Together they moved forward to Hawkesbury Junction where they were uncoupled so Pentargon could go it alone down the Coventry Arm.  As of 11th March I was at "Longford Engine" by a wood supplier who has sold me half a dozen 4.2m lengths of 3x1 pressure treated with which to  start making a deck to cover the engine. 

12th: a gaoth mor reared up in the middle of the night but the boat was well nailed although a gust woke me at 4am conveniently to top up the fire and get the sea area before snoozing off til 7.30 when I got up and had porridge before grading a days charcoal and again topping the fire at 8.30 before updating the boat log and lashing down the eyebrow which rattled ominously in a strong gust

22Mar and the Equinox passed with me at the flat and the boat resided just outside Coventry basin. I am returning today on the 1354 train out of Peterborough for Nuneaton and hope to get a bus to the boat. 

https://www.pentargon60906.co.uk/pentargons-blog/archives/02-2026

Who knows? I may be coming out of the wood. In a manner of speaking. Being as I how I habitually take the road less travelled it would not be unusual. 
The boat is in experimental mode because of an electric glitch that has so far foxed me. 
Wavy is parked at Newbold, freshly licenced for 12mts £300 and Pentargon is in Braunston in the hopes of getting the exhaust fixed so I can proceed with my voyage to Ashby de la Zouch.
I've had trades in the flat putting shelves up, heavy-duty, to take encylopaedias and loads of other volumes that precluded making the flat habitable. 

In other news I learned how to use an inhaler to see if it allows me to climb stairs and inclines.  
Between 3rd and 6th I got laundry done, got free food, had tea and cake on 5th having tripped out to Dunn and Harrison in Stamford via Morrisons at Brotherhood where I topped up my Harvey's 1L for £14. 

February weather has been unpleasantly overcast and bitter even though the OAT by day is alleged to be +10C.  Tonight is the start of the six nations which I'll watch from 8.10pm and in the morning return to the boat. Inserted 21st, Ireland got hammered by France, beat Scotland and are at Twickers today

Charcoal initially promised Sat for which I had gone to the boat was delivered Wed so I overnighted and it teemed with rain all night so ar an la arna mharach I drained 150L of rain back into the canal and at 0945 bailed out of the boat and came back to P.Boro by bus to spend the w/e there returning by trains Wed morning but arriving after the bags were dumped at my neighbour's gate instead of at the boat. 

21st. I've been at the flat for the past while as Paul Renshaw could not look at the boat til Tue24th so I returned Monday by bus with a jump start device bought from B+Q for £179 which did not solve any of my problems but neither did it add to my woes and looks like it could be a useful piece of kit for other uses.  I have now got BOTH starter batteries garage charged and the engine starts at once on the key. 

The boat was at Renshaws from dusk on Mon 23rd and work started on Tues in good weather  eventually being released to me as the sun went down on Thursday evening.  I overnighted there and took off in the morning to dump rubbish at Swindlers where I remembered and remembered that my second starter battery was still in Renshaws.  So back down to pick it up confirming it had been on all night which was EXACTLY what I would have wanted.  Once I had retrieved it and the weather being fair I did the full run back to wavy in one go and was linked up by 3oc on Friday and I weekended there. with the plan being to rest on Sat and Sun and return to flat on Monday 

Yes I know it is very late January but I am trying to ensure there is at least one entry per month and I have just got in by the skin of my erse. January was a funny month. The boat spent Christmas in Braunston.  I spent Christmas and New Year in the flat. Renshaw was still busy when I checked so I took the boats into Rugby and late in January onwards to Newbold. 

I am still pursuing my medical condition and now in the dying days I have got a face to face with Dr Smith (Thurs 29th 14.50) to see if we can do anything about the breathlessness first noticed at Watford on my first trip to Foxton. 

The condition has been getting worse but ever so slowly and imperceptibly 

Right across theed of November and the beginning of December has been incredibly busy and a teeny bit stressful for me. I had marked Dec1 on the calendar with Paul Renshaw to fix Pentargons exhaust and turned up on 2nd to find he has a major engine job with no end date to finish before having time for mine.. Against all the odds and in gale force conditions I had taken Pentrargon on Dec1 from Hillmorton to B87 and had my solar panel swept off the roof in a squall but luckily it stayed attached and was retrieved and shipped before I nailed the boat to the armco to await the morrow.  Tues. dawned clear sky and looked like presenting the first real chance I would have since mid October to get some charge into the Sterling LiFePO4. 

Tues 2nd Dec and an early morning sky allowed me to raise the panel and charge the battery. As the day went on the boat was moved progressively to get the best sun and I got an hour on each side on noon when at last the charge reading which had been stuck at 53% since the end of October finally passed 54% and then 55% where it now is. The fine detail is in the ships log for 1st and 2nd Dec.  Basically the Sterling controller has to see in excess of 14.4v before it will begin to bulk the Sterling.  However within seconds of doing that the line voltage will collapse to 12ish and the Sterling controller isolates the Sterling from the boat circuit.  The solar then punches in more wattage the volts climb and on passing 14.4 the controller allows bulking to continue.  And the cycle repeats.  Today there was sufficient continuous sun for the Sterling to get up beyond 54% and now the Sterling is fee​ding the boat to maintain 12.4 in the line.  Subject to continued testing on return in mid December it would appear that the whole system is finally delivering

A clear horizon from dawn useful wattage early on serious wattage later and in the midday hour with a light breeze and a bright sun and the panels vertical the Sterling went from 53% to 55% in an hour whenever the wattage got over 116W. beyond the midday hour the wattage just wasn't there so I moved to Butchers (via swindlers where I enquira battery) and tied up while visiting Renshaw and getting the bad news that he would not be able to take me on for at least ten days.  I was booked to fly to Dublin on 6th back on 10th and Ottilie's birthday party in on 12th so it looks like Pentargon is going to be alone for some time. Also I have ongoing war with Willowtree to get certification for CFS and this is mopping much of my nervous energy. I am writing this in the lounge on Fri5th and will be flying out of Stansted tomorrow evening to stay with Shay/Patricia returning late evening 10th with vacuum plans

 NOVEMBER SECOND HALF
Friday 14th a massive rain front sat over middle England all day and dumped a reported 4" of rain but amazingly no floods resulted in this part of the country.  I was concerned as to how the boat would fare and resolved to visit the boat by bus on the Saturday which I did on a round trip.  Suffice to say I was up at 6am and dressed for the road by 7 and on the only bus option at that time the No.1 to Baker's Lane where I transferred painlessly to x4 and settled in for the long haul to Northhampton arriving there at 10.30 and catching the 96 which on Saturday's departs Drapery at +40, got off at Houlton at 11.50 to hail a passing D1 which left me on the boat at 12.10.  It took about 35minutes to pump out Pentargon and hoof it back to Houlton to get back to Northampton. 

I pumped out the bilge in less than 10 minutes meanwhile making a mug of coffee, rearranged the deckchairs, put a note in the log and left at 12.49 to WALK back to Houlton for the 13.10 96 which arrived at 16 and then beetled to Northampton bu not in time for me to catch the 15.33 X4.  The X4 route was haywire and suffice to say that it was 16.03 before I caught one and 1840 when it got me to Baker's Lane with 12minutes to wait for a No.1.  But I did get to the FLAT at 19.15 exactly 12hrs after I had walked out.   I got to bed about 10pm and slept well all night waking at 6.30 to listen to the farming and later programmes on steam radio til 9oc.  On land I revert effortlessly to my alter ego.  Sundays have always tended to be observed and nowadays R4 which used to be the Home Service has wall-to-wall religious-themed programmes is very easy on the ear. 

Later I half-dressed, surfed FB and made tea.  Later still I dressed fully and went to Iceland and Co-op to stock up.  Just as I was gong out I was met in the corridor by Rosemary who proferred a brand new freezer which I accepted with grace because I believe it will fit in the existing fridge hole in the kitchen and become part of the furniture. On Sunday evening I rewired the fridge hole and fitted the freezer but I didn't plug it in because it is not needed.

We were now promised serious cold for the next week so I planned to see how the boat can cope with the cold.  It should give the solars a chance to fill the Sterling.  Wed 19th Nov I went to the boat to stay a week and returned to the flat on Wed.26th having successfully tested out the winter settings on board.  A lack of reliable sun prevented full testing of the charging system and it remains work in progress.  The boats have been separated and Pentargon turned and facing Braunston.  

Meanwhile I signed up for the ATC lunch in Wynns on Tue 9thDec and got a return ticket to Dublin from Stansted out on Sat6th at 1845 returning Wed 10th late evening.  I plan to have the boat in Braunston with Paul Renshaw to do the exhaust leaving Wavy to mind the house while I am away.  With luck the exhaust will be completed for me to pick up the boat, rejoin Wavy and move onward through Rugby in stages towards 'Newbolt' to continue constant cruising towards Ansty and Bedworth and eventually Nuneaton itself with a view to doing the Ashby le Zouch arm in the spring.  

 NOVEMBER FIRST HALF
The blog is getting ragged but hanging in there and now is on a monthly schedule or at least that is the intention. This is being keyed in at 12.52 on Thursday 13th Nov in the common room with the curtains drawn and the sun shining outside. 

The daily weather on board had been getting progressively worse since I left Braunston on 9th with winds and overnight rains filling the bilges so the chore of deleafing and emptying water and crud was essential and was done. The almost total lack of proper sunlight meant I could not usefully develop the onboard electrics so I decided to bale out and see what was happening at the flat. 

I had prebooked a cheap train ticket Nuneaton to Peterborough a week ago and knew I could connect from Rugby to Nuneaton via an 84 bus which I did and thus arrived 'home' on Wed12thNov/16.20 to settle in and prepare for my Thursday laundry slot.  During the evening I was delighted to have long conversations with Steve and Rosie and Thomas the mariner til very late.  I eventually got to bed at midnight and slept through til "8oc" waking a bit confused  before realising my clocks were still on New Time ... 

The extra hour allowed me to get the washing on early and visit Willowtree who said they would give me a phone appointment for Thursday morning.  I kept the phone on and stayed in but got no call by 2oc so I took a trip to town to pay my sub for u3a. 11153 is my membership number