Blackstone’s engine is healthy again.

For some time now, we have suffered from fuel contamination. At first we did not realise why our filters kept clogging and the engine kept stopping at the most inconvenient places. Suddenly a light went on in the brain and we realised that our diesel was contaminated with diesel bug. Not surprising really as we had not cruised very much for a couple of years due to personal circumstances, so the fuel had just been sitting in the tank.

At first we tried to sort this problem out ourselves. We added Marine 16 fuel treatment, but although this helped briefly, the diesel was soon contaminated again. We pumped out fuel into containers and let the gunk settle before carefully pouring the clean diesel from the top of the containers back into the fuel tank. Again, this was only a temporary solution as the bug grew again. We were loath to lose nearly a full tank of diesel so, as we were not intending to cruise far during the winter, we decided to use the diesel up charging the batteries, heating the water etc; empting the muck that collected in the water trap every time we used the engine.

Finally, when we were down to less than 1/4 tank and what was left was more gunk than diesel, we booked into Claymore Narrowboats to have the diesel tank pumped out and cleaned. They did a wonderful job, getting rid of the contaminated fuel, cleaning out the tank and engine, fitting new filters etc. They then filled us up with over 200 litres of nice fresh diesel and we were ready to cruise again. The engine hasn’t sounded so good for ages.

A little bit of Jennyanydots

After we had the new dinette fitted, we had to decide on the cushions to furnish it.

While we were deciding, our friends Anne and Ray offered us some cushions from their boat Jennyanydots. They had replaced their sofa, but kept the cushions from the original sofa.

We accepted their kind offer and set about converting two long cushions into four smaller cushions.

We started with two of these:-

We removed the covers and cut the foam to fit the dinette seats.

Liz cut down the covers and sewed them to cover the seat cushions.

     

The second cushion pad was then cut down to make the back cushions.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was tricky as they had to be shaped to fit under the gunwales.

 

 

The covers were cut and sewed to make the back cushions.

And the job was completed.

       

Liz is no seamstress and has never tried upholstery before, but these cushions turned out OK. We are very pleased with the result.

Thank you Jennyanydots for donating these lovely cushions. They look great on Blackstone.