Sirius 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!


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Narrowboat heating

Well, 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 they were the only people who I could find in the south east who specialise in Mikuni heaters and I wanted them to fully bench test the heater before fitting it, which they did and apparently everything is fine and the second hand heater I bought on eBay looks as though its never actually been used, so a good buy there :)

The next stage in getting heating fitted is of course ripping out the old pipework for the back boiler on my squirrel stove, getting rid of the old rusty radiators and fitting some nice new ones :)

I have ordered all my new radiators, pipe work fittings, HEP20 pipe work and values from a company called Discounted heating but unfortunately it seems the whole country is currently out of stock of 30cm high radiators, keeping my fingers crossed that their 2 week estimate is about right, I'd like to get them fitted when it is still cold to make all the hastle and money worth while :)

Narrowboat 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 the coming weeks as I spend a few weekends with friends fitting her out with central heating... luxury!

Apple 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 accessories one I'd really like for Christmas is the Black Morphie Juice Pack which is an extended battery pack for the iPhone, very useful considering the battery is probably the iPhone's biggest weakness.

Unfortunately being the 24th December, I think it's a bit late... maybe something for me to buy next year :)

Diesel 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 central heating system fitted, so finally after owning her for 6 years, I will be able to flick a switch and have a warm boat! And more importantly, I can set a timer to ensure I have a warm boat when I arrive, what a luxury!

As soon as it's all fitted I will take some photos and post them to my blog :)

Low energy LED bulbs for a Narrowboat

I 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 that everything uses, when you are moored in one place for a week, it's not great to have to run the engine for 3-4 hours to charge the batteries, so the more economical you can be, obviously the longer the batteries will last.

The first thing I have started to do is re-wire the entire boat, for whatever reason (lack of electrical knowledge) the previous owners have used wire that is far to thin, which results in a large voltage drop, i.e. in my boat instead of having 12v+ at the headlamp, I had closer to 8.5v, which as you can imagine results in a very dim headlight!

After re-wiring the main runs of cabling, the next task will be to replace the current bulbs (which are all approximately 10-20w bulbs) with low power LED equivalent bulbs which draw about 1-3 watts, a huge saving!

The following site looks like a good supplier, if anyone knows of any others please let me know: Ultra LED Online

How to change a fuel filter | Lister ST3 Fuel Filter

Over 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 emailing me is obviously very knowledgeable, thanks Graham!

Here is a photo of my Lister ST3 and the offending fuel filter:

The fuel filters are very easy to change:

1) Turn off your diesel supply
2) Undo the nut on the top of the fuel filter (make sure you put something underneath to catch any diesel inside the filter.)
3) Remove the filter (make sure you don't loose the spring inside!)
4) Give the filter bowl a good clean with some kitchen roll or rag
5) Refit the filter using the new rubber seals provided with your new filter
6) Don't over tighten the nut

Bleed the Engine (I.e. get rid of the air in the fuel line)

1) Open the small nut just above the fuel filter as shown in the view from above.
2) Turn over the engine until fuel starts to come out of the hole and then re-seal it
3) If you have further bleed points do the same again
4) Then turn over the engine until it starts, simples :)

I hope this helps someone!