tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-85999512024-03-13T17:55:26.041+00:00Narrowboat BlogA blog about my 70' Narrowboat Sirius and anything related to Narrowboats.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00814054517669967203noreply@blogger.comBlogger80125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8599951.post-67544077427711367952010-07-05T11:59:00.000+00:002010-07-05T12:01:01.301+00:00Sirius is finally back home again!I have finally managed to bring Sirius back to Berkshire after being moored for almost a year in and around London on the River Lee, Regents Canal, Grand Union Canal and of course the Thames.It was good fun staying in London, but now Sirius needs some TLC and a good amount of DIY to get her back into shape. I am not looking forward to the painting!Posted using BlogPress from my iPadAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00814054517669967203noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8599951.post-71937842560224092432010-01-28T00:41:00.002+00:002010-01-28T00:53:01.554+00:00Narrowboat heatingWell, my diesel heater was finally fitted near the end of November, a couple of months after I had hoped it would be, I wouldn't recommend Lee Valley boat yard if you want anything done quickly that's for sure, I was told the same by a fellow boater who had been living aboard moored near them for almost a month and in the end gave up waiting, I don't blame him.I was somewhat stuck though, as theyAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00814054517669967203noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8599951.post-78429586994196930152010-01-08T14:52:00.001+00:002010-01-08T14:55:48.733+00:00Narrowboat ice breaker photos :)Hi All,It's been a long time since I made a good post about my Narrowboat as I have not been on her for such a long time, hopefully next weekend will be the first time back on board for about 4 months, fingers crossed she is ok!I just came across this blog post of a narrowboat breaking through the ice which I thought was worth a mention :)Watch out for some new "heating being fitted" posts in theAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00814054517669967203noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8599951.post-12119692220967141342009-12-24T14:52:00.004+00:002009-12-24T14:59:07.186+00:00Apple iPhone Accessories for Christmas :)Hi All,Well I don't have any Narrowboat news today as I have spent the last couple of weeks over in Brazil, no sign of a Narrowboat over there ;-)As it's Christmas time I have been shopping for my family and of course you always see things you would like to buy yourself. I have had an iPhone for nearly a year now and it's the best phone I've had.I came across a very good site which sells iphone Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00814054517669967203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8599951.post-13293549927133348042009-10-16T13:04:00.001+00:002009-10-16T13:09:04.499+00:00Diesel Heating installed in my Narrowboat :)Wow, time flies when your having fun :) I have not updated my blog for ages it seems and lost has happened since my last update!Sirius has been moored in London for most of the summer continuously cruising along the Regents canal, staying at places like Little Venice, Camden Town and Victory Park to mention just a few :)Current she is moored at a boatyard and having a decent diesel fueled centralAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00814054517669967203noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8599951.post-81141148925927021342009-08-10T14:07:00.002+00:002009-08-10T14:21:43.131+00:00Low energy LED bulbs for a NarrowboatI have spent the last 3 weeks living on board Sirius, it's the first time I've really lived on board for any really length of time, and I am really enjoying it. What I have found is that by living on board, a lot of the little things that don't really matter if you are only using the narrowboat occassionally at weekends, suddenly become more important.Like for example the amount of electricity Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00814054517669967203noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8599951.post-17269608182528028562009-05-27T12:16:00.009+00:002009-05-27T12:54:43.226+00:00How to change a fuel filter | Lister ST3 Fuel FilterOver last weekend I thought Sirius had an exhaust leak until I realised that it was infact a fuel leak. The seal on the fuel filter had failed and hence it was dripping (well at one stage spraying) diesel onto the hot engine and then it was smoking.I have ordered 3 new filters from Online Auto Spares who are a business selling engine parts via eBay, excellent service and Graham who has been Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00814054517669967203noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8599951.post-88312339759056805062009-05-26T21:44:00.002+00:002009-05-26T22:03:18.147+00:00England's five best canal holiday routesThere was an article on Times Online today by Terry Ramsey about his five favourite canal holiday routes. I wonder how they compare to others? Feel free to leave some comments about your favour canal routes :)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00814054517669967203noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8599951.post-7588740465477822832009-05-26T16:51:00.006+00:002009-05-26T17:06:59.643+00:00Narrowboat Wardrobe | DIY repairs | CompletedAs you may have seen from a previous Narrowboat Wardrobe post one of my many DIY jobs to do on Sirius was to mend the wardrobe doors, well you'll be glad to hear that I have finally finished and the repaired doors are now hanging :)The only problem which you will notice if you look at the photo below is I have some how managed to loose three of the slats, so there is a small gap at the bottom of Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00814054517669967203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8599951.post-60077756146058990812009-05-21T08:32:00.006+00:002009-05-21T08:45:14.350+00:00Double Bridge Naish Hill Lacock | Official opening by the Duchess of CornwallThe Duchess of Cornwall is to open a newly restored double bridge on the Wiltshire and Berkshire Canal next Tuesday (26th May 2009) I actually found this article on Twitter and the original article can be found on the This is Wiltshire website.You can find more information about the event on the Wilts and Berks Trust website, the following page might not exist after the event: The Official Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00814054517669967203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8599951.post-36637722086948664342009-05-18T21:45:00.002+00:002009-05-19T00:46:36.031+00:00Narrowboat Directory - Looking for ideas / feedback.I am currently building a new website which I am hoping to launch in July 2009 which will be available on the following URL:http://www.NarrowboatDirectory.comAs you can probably tell, the idea of the website is to be a directory of all Narrowboats in the UK. I have the current listings from BW, EA & the Broads Authority which are all pretty poor when it comes to database design. E.g. The BW Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00814054517669967203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8599951.post-81535416350098891482009-05-14T10:13:00.002+00:002009-05-14T10:18:54.737+00:00Narrowboat Wardrobe - DIY RepairsThe next phase of my DIY on Sirius is to repair the wardrobe door and give the wardrobe a good clean! As you can see from the photo I took yesterday, it really needs both :)The left hand wardrobe door fell apart a couple of years ago, but I have all the bits and a couple of clamps and some wood glue, so hopefully I will be able to put it all back together again. Then the cupboard will need a Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00814054517669967203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8599951.post-55077770587180444922009-05-13T21:45:00.001+00:002009-05-14T09:48:48.066+00:00Google Tasks or Remember the milk?I have been using Remember the Milk for a few months now for trying to manage my tasks, both related to my job working for Ava (who produce Temporary Staff Agency Software) and also for day to day tasks like repairing the floor on Sirius!I saw today that Google have announced they are now providing Task Lists in Google Calendar which I am sure will effect companies like Remember the Milk.For me Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00814054517669967203noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8599951.post-83869220510727836812009-05-13T09:04:00.004+00:002009-05-13T09:20:19.272+00:00Narrowboat Bedroom Floor Repaired - Part 1I have been meaning to upload a couple of photos for over a week now! I have been busy as my younger brother decided to beat me to it and he married Linda over the bank holiday weekend, they were very lucky with the weather!A friend Dave and I ripped up the very rotten flooring in the bedroom on Sirius and built a new supporting structure which is fixed down onto the Narrowboat steel. Most of theAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00814054517669967203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8599951.post-61460320319371885712009-04-24T14:49:00.001+00:002009-04-29T16:23:07.728+00:00Narrowboat DIYWell the DIY is going to continue this weekend, I will hopefully post some photos tomorrow. The plan is to rip up some of the flooring which has unfortunately rotted away by water leaking into Sirius through a currently un-known source.After the old flooring is up, obviously stage two will be laying some new flooring, I'm not sure yet what sort of wood to use, it will probably depend on what I Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00814054517669967203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8599951.post-61954667254158221682009-04-06T10:17:00.003+00:002009-04-29T16:23:24.745+00:00Royal Navy takes delivery of 70ft narrowboatI thought this was an interesting Narrowboat related bit of news from the This is Wiltshire website. The Royal Navy have bought themselves a 70' narrowboat! I wonder which of the following gadgets it has:* bow thrusters* Anti-GRP torpedos ;-)* Helicopter Landing Pad? ( Something I was considering if I every become good enough at flying my model one :) )In all seriousness though, they have bought Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00814054517669967203noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8599951.post-51120338225802728082009-04-02T14:34:00.004+00:002009-05-14T10:19:14.209+00:00Giving Sirius a spring cleanFor the last couple of weekends I have been giving Sirius a decent spring clean with help from a couple of friends of mine. Two weekends ago we jet washed the outside (both sides) and gave her a good scrubbing down, she looks a lot better now, but the down side is this exposes all the areas that need a re-paint, and on a 70' narrowboat, that's quite a few places!Then last weekend it was time to Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00814054517669967203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8599951.post-39020256693891832262009-04-02T14:15:00.003+00:002009-04-02T14:31:31.460+00:00Hold Tight and Tell No OneMy girlfriend has been persuading me to read more recently, by more, I actually mean in all honesty that I have not read a fiction book for the past 15 years! So, as we had a long flight Marie bought me Hold Tight by Harlan Coben which turned out to be just the right sort of book for me, I'd highly recommend it! And following on from that I am now reading Tell No One which has proved to be Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00814054517669967203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8599951.post-10126673261656796412009-04-02T14:01:00.007+00:002009-04-02T14:30:58.488+00:00Playing around with Amazon associatesI thought I'd have a play around with the Amazon associates scheme and see how well their automatic book adverts actually work. In theory after 4 or 5 people visit each page on my blog the books or products advertised should be relevant to the content in my blog.So far I have noticed that the books advertised on the home page are definitely narrowboat related, so maybe it will be of interest to Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00814054517669967203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8599951.post-3839766994597256152009-03-05T13:14:00.006+00:002009-04-29T16:24:47.924+00:00Window's have been repaired.Hi All,It's amazing how time flies when your having fun. I have now had the windows replaced by Marine Windows, they also added new sealant to the other 10 windows (at my cost) so hopefully that will stop a bit of the water that gets into Sirius, and maybe keep out a few of the spiders :)I've also moved Sirius, but not very far and the Thames is now back on Red boards and stream increasing again,Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00814054517669967203noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8599951.post-1236976487643955602009-02-12T14:34:00.002+00:002009-02-12T14:39:46.492+00:00High waters on the K&AWell as those of you who living in the UK (and who actually read this in the next week or so) will know it has been raining cats and dogs over the last few days. The K&A is at it's highest point this year, the water was flowing straight over the weir on Tuesday night in the centre of Reading by the Loch Fyne restaurant.I don't think there is a hope for me moving Sirius this weekend, for a start IAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00814054517669967203noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8599951.post-14213540519379357382009-02-04T23:11:00.003+00:002009-04-29T16:25:24.455+00:00The repairs are beginning!Craft Insure, who are the insurance company who I have my Narrowboat insurance with have given me the go ahead to replace the smashed windows and repair the window frame.Apparently they are not sure I should be claiming for new carpet and bedding, I would be interested what you all think? I had two windows smashed on top of the bed and over the bedroom carpet. The glass shattered into thousands Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00814054517669967203noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8599951.post-29219942526516632362008-12-11T13:14:00.002+00:002008-12-11T13:30:38.409+00:00British Waterway mooring tendersI placed a bid on a BW mooring this afternoon to see if I could get myself a mooring. I am in two minds about having a mooring at all, because I just feel if you pay a fortune for a mooring, you should use it.. but then that means your not cruising around the network visiting all those nice little village pubs and meeting lots of fellow boaters :)So, my plan was to try and get a cheap mooring Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00814054517669967203noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8599951.post-22180040417766971422008-09-18T08:49:00.000+00:002008-09-18T08:49:35.702+00:00Official Google Blog: Google Maps for mobile now with Street View and walking directionsNow this is pretty cool, Google Maps for mobile now has walking directions. The question is when will they buy a site like Canal Plan, who have a lot of photos of the canals and then produce a boating directions guide with boat eye photos :)Official Google Blog: Google Maps for mobile now with Street View and walking directionsAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00814054517669967203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8599951.post-51035285398362633822008-08-12T22:17:00.004+00:002008-08-12T22:26:06.662+00:00Working on water :)Hi All,I've no idea how many people actually read this blog, maybe it's just my mum.. infact, maybe she doesn't read it?! Anyway, for those of you who have read it, thank you, and do leave some comments so I know your out there :)As you will have seen from my previous post Sirius was broken into, since then I have tried to spend more time on Sirius, the problem is, as I work in IT I have a Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00814054517669967203noreply@blogger.com7