Preparing for our friends Mark and Cheryl to borrow Erin Mae for a week we took her over to the marina's service wharf for a pump-out and to top up the diesel. To my amazement Doug reported that he could only get 0.1 of a litre into the tank.
I wasn't expecting it to take much, but since we last filled it we've done about 11 hours gentle cruising. I reckon Erin Mae's Isuzu 42 does between 1.25 and 1.5 litres an hour at proper cruising speed, so let's say 1 litre an hour for these trips, because so much is past the moored boats of Great Haywood. That's 11 litres, plus whatever we've used over a two-week period for heating water.
So how come the tank was full? The only thing that springs to mind was whether the pump-out might have affected the trim and the apparent level of diesel. Whatever the reason (and I would love to know the reason), I'm not complaining! Especially as working out a fuel declaration on 0.1 litres is more trouble than it's worth, so I got 6.5p worth of diesel for free. And I wonder whether Mark and Cheryl's diesel bill will be £7 more than it might otherwise have been.
I hope you haven't got water in your fuel tank. Have you tried draining any accumulated water from the agglomerator (if you have one)?
ReplyDeleteThere's a horrible thought! But I doubt it's water. First, I can't imagine how 11 litres might have got in and, second, the engine has just been purring along fine. However, since we're not ourselves on Erin Mae at the moment I shan't be able to look until we take over again next week.
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