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It's been strange not being able to text, tweet or blog for 2 days while we were up at Loch Nevis and Inverie. After the night around the camp fire we headed off on the short motor to Inverie on the Knoydart peninsula. Home of the Old Forge, Britain's remotest pub. I dropped Kirsty's parents off so they could walk around to the camp site to pitch their tent before we set off on a walk. There are 3 Munros around the peninsula, the tops of which were shrouded in cloud, but the height of the mountains behind Inverie was something I still can't get used to. It's quite overwhelming to see these vast lumps of rock in all directions, and the scale is something you can't appreciate through video or photographs. Being a photographer I try to capture the scale, but nothing I can do can really give the impression they give me.

We ate a substantial meal at the Old Forge before returning to Pixie on mirrored waters. It was the longest day, and even at 11 there was plenty of light to take photographs.



On a night like that with awesome scenery around you, there really is nowhere better to be sitting in your cockpit drinking a dram or two.

We were up at 8:30 to wave off Kirsty's parents as they caught the ferry back to Mallaig. We set off for Rhum shortly afterwards. There was little wind when we set off, but then it filled in from the south and we had a beautiful sail. The Isle of Skye took up the horizon to the north, Eigg and Ardnamurchan to the south, to the west and ahead of us was the silhillouette that had dominated the horizon, the vast mountains of Rhum. While astern was the Highlands of Scotland in all her beauty. The sun was out and we had 16 knots slightly forward of the beam. Simply magic.

As we approached the harbour the wind increased to 22 knots, probably caused by Rhum's high mountains, we reefed and kept going. We put the engine on and dropped the sails, found a nice spot to anchor and the the engine died! I re-started it, only for it to die again seconds later. We tried again, but no sooner had the engine turned over than it died. Trying once more, to no avail we dropped the anchor, where we were. The Spade anchor held first time, phew!
Kirsty thought it was that we'd run out of fuel, but the full inspection bowl discounted that theory. I thought it could be muck in the tank, as the engine draws it's fuel from the side of the tank that would have been lowest when we were sailing.

I phoned Nick at Sea Start to get his thoughts. Nick asked about the fuel level, I said we had loads and said the bowl was full, and went on to explain my theory, which Nick agreed sounded possible. He explained how to sort it out. Get to the bottom of the fuel tank, take the pipe off, open the fuel shut off, and see if any fuel comes out, then blow back through the fuel hose to make sure that isn't blocked. So we got everything out of the cockpit locker, I disconnected the engine battery I'd installed so I could get better access.

In the process I looked at the sight gauge on the fuel tank. The pipe is cloudy, but even so I couldn't see a level, so I took the top off and blew through it....No sound of bubbles, no sign of fuel. I put 20 litres in the tank and could see the level on the sight tube. Kirsty was right. We'd run out of fuel!

We only have a sight gauge, so we have to keep a note of the engine hours in the log, and guess. I guessed wrongly and we hadn't been adding the engine hours we'd been using to charge the batteries. All my fault, I am a wally!