Misfortunes and good sailing ...

21st July 2021, about five miles from Kyle of Lochalsh.

I didn't go to Rona on Monday, I went to Loch Torridon. I motored all the way - a slightly scary thought in retrospect.

I anchored at the top of Upper Loch Torridon, within sight of the village. I'll attach some pictures to this post when I get them uploaded.

On Tuesday morning I wanted to make an early start. It was, again, fairly windless - although a contrary breeze was building from the SW. When I tried to start the engine, nothing happened.

I've had some worries about the starter motor, so I took it out and checked it over (tested it with jump leads etc.). When I put it all back together it seemed to work fine, but for some reason the oil pressure alarm wasn't going off. The oil pressure gauge was reading a bit over two bar (which is normally where it sits), so I assumed it was a problem with the wiring - that I had maybe dislodged something when I was removing the starter motor.

After eliminating a number of possibilities, and running the engine off and on over the course of the morning, I realised that there might actually be an oil problem.

(I had caused myself further confusion before this by removing the oil pressure sender to see whether there might be a blockage of some kind - I found nothing, but when I put it back the gauge started dropping as well as the alarm sounding.)

I looked back through the log to see when I had last topped it up - it was about a week before, in Loch Aline. I had check the dip stick since then, but I hadn't logged it.

Anyhow, I checked it again and found it very low (possibly off the end - the dipstick is hard to access, and often gets smeared with stuff in the tube). I added two litres and started the engine again - again, warning alarm and low oil pressure on the gauge. I checked the dipstick again, and it was still showing nothing.

There is some oil down there because the gauge leaps up when the engine starts, but then drifts down towards zero.

Unfortunately, two litres was all I had on board, so I couldn't experiment further and I couldn't run the engine anymore.

Two other odd things: although the starter motor now seems to work, it occasionally keeps running after the engine starts. Possibly a solenoid problem. I can stop it by switching off the engine battery, but I'm not sure whether this has other bad side effects. It shouldn't bother the alternator, because it has load from the domestic side.

Also, the oil pressure alarm just stopped working at all after a while. It doesn't even come on when the engine is stopped, now.

I sailed from Torridon a little after two and beat down the loch - completely magical sailing, with sun, scenery, smooth water, and 15 knots of wind over the deck. Outside the loch, I bore away down the coast and reached Applecross bay just before (!) the wind died completely. It had already swung to the north, and I was running very gently when it stopped.

After messing around for an hour, I pulled the dinghy alongside and fitted its outboard. At half throttle that gave me two knots or so of slighlty ungainly (jumping in and out of the dinghy ...) motoring. Useful to know.

This morning I'm sailing for Kyle, having established that I can buy engine oil from Marine Supplies on Station Road. I'll anchor by the bridge (there is a small bay on the north side) and pay them a visit by dinghy.

Then I can at least find out how fast the oil is disappearing, and, with luck, where it is going ...

And whether I've just been reading the dip stick a bit carelessly ...

I've only exceeded three knots once since 9am, and it's now nearly one. I should do this more often.