Year 3 -17 April 2026 – Himmufuschi -North Male Atoll – Maldives

It was a gentle and hot morning when we woke. We had breakfast and we waited to hear from the engineer as to when he will arrive in Himmufuschi as he was coming from Male. At 8.45am we had a message saying that he will arrive at 9.15am. I therefore set off and rowed to the little port at about 9.00am. It was about a quster of a mile. Once inside there was a sign saying welcome to Himmufuschi and there were some cafés on the front with some nice trees so that people could sit in the shade and pass the time of day.

I was not sure where to leave the dinghy and where the ferries come in so I found a space and I walked around round to find some shade. I did not have to wait that long and met the engineer, Thaleem off the ferry. He said he wanted a coffee first and so we went to the nearest café where he had a black expresso coffee, a bottle of water and some Maldavian nuts – which were sliced bits of nut which he put some powder on and then sucked it and chewed it in his mouth. He then had two rolled up cigarettes. This became a theme during the day. He said hello to various people he knew.

Once he had finished I rowed him out to Stormbird and we got the 4 hp motor on to the dinghy. He looked first at the spark plug and fitting and it was not sparking very well. He cleaned the inside of the plastic fitting which fits over the spark plug and then once cleaned it seemed to be sparking well. He then checked the fuel pump and that was working. He then took the carburettor apart and the jets were dirty. Once all was cleaned and assembled again he went to start it and it worked. The stop switch which you attach to the kill cord was broken so he said he would get another one.

He then said he needed a coffee and yes you guessed it two cigarettes one after another. He was born and bred here and dived and had worked on a tug as an engineer for 10 years. He was a confident affable chap.

We then took off the 4 hp outboard and craned the 9.9 one down on to the boat.

Whilst we worked on the engines lots of large speed boats and ferries went passing at top speed and we tried to wave them down to slow them down. They just do not care and have not learnt any etiquette.

Thaleem started with the two spark plugs and one of them was not firing. They looked like old plugs and one was rusty. Those b Indians serviced it and left rusty spark plugs in -rotten sods. He said he would have to get two new spark plugs and a new spark plug lead. We discussed this and he was in Hulhumale tomorrow and I said we should be able to come down there. Otherwise we would have to wait until Sunday. He said he had one boat to look at and then he could come over.

I also told him about a problem with the bow thruster as when I have used it, it seems to then take power from the 24-volt system even though it has its own battery bank and the instruments blank out. He said he would check the batteries first and the 12v and engine start were fine. He then checked the cart batteries for the 24v system and 2 of them were not good and one in the bow thruster group was not good. He said the problem was this that without their power it has to get it from elsewhere. He said he would look into replacement batteries. The conclusion he reached seemed logical and at least I know what the problem is now I hope.

He was due to go to another boat so I said I would take him with the 4 hp engine which was working. However, he wanted to get some lunch so I took him to the harbour where he had some lunch, a black coffee, two cigarettes and Maldavian nuts. I waited and when he was ready took him down the lagoon to a boat called Ali Baba.

I returned to Stormbird to the patient crew and we then prepared to go ashore. They had had lunch in my absence and had kindly saved some for me. We decided to take the rubbish as we needed to dispose of 3 sacks. We motored in and moored by the steps and quietly we put the rubbish in the bin and decided to look around.

There were about 5 cafes on the front and people got around it appeared by moped or golf buggy. There were no roads and it was all sand tracks which still had a few puddles from the recent rain. We went behind the front and found little streets with houses/guest houses and there was a lot of building going on. We found a shop and managed to stock up on some fruit and vegetables which is all we really required and then we walked to the back of the island passing what looked like a prison and it had a boat on its stand with Prison on the side. We then came to the East side which had a reef and surfers were using it to surf although they had to be careful to not come too shallow or they would be on the coral or rocks. It was very hot. We walked around and found an ATM and then decided to come back to Stormbird.

We relaxed a bit had a dip and then showered and we decided to go ashore to have supper. I had been told about a guest house which was quite good called Noah. We moored the dinghy again took all the bottles we had to throw away which we had not taken in before. Once ashore we walked around the North part of the island and we came across some more guest houses and we looked at the menu and decided to eat there. We had a bit of a wait but had some delicious fish but the vegetables were frozen. There was of course no alcohol allowed with the meal.

We returned to Stormbird and had a small beer on the back in the moonlight which was nice. We had made some progress today and had a working outboard at least. We will go to Hulhumale tomorrow and hopefully get other things fixed.

The picture of today is a lovely sunset in Himmufuschi.

Need/Opportunity Year Three

I will be going shortly from India to the Maldives and then on to Mauritius, Reunion, Cape Town, St Helena, Azores and back to the UK.

I am looking for one crew from Mauritius/ Reunion Island to Cape Town (mid-June to end of July). If of any interest do email me.

The blog will continue as we continue the journey. If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog then do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com