Year 3 -19 April 2026 – Himmufuschi -North Male Atoll – Maldives

It was a scorcher of a day when we got up and we had papaya for breakfast with the usual. I had a call from Thaleem that there was no 8.00am ferry and so the earliest he could be on was the 11.30am which would get in at 11.45pm. This was annoying but there was nothing I could do.

Stig, Cari and I therefore decided to go off and snorkel. We took the dinghy off to a large wreck on the edge of the reef inside the lagoon. We anchored in about 4 foot of sand and we snorkelled. The shadow of the large wreck meant that there were lots of fish of all sizes.  enjoying the dark and coolness of the shade. Whilst we enjoyed this there was not much coral there. We had passed a fish boat which was pumping out red water – presumably fish guts and blood etc. There was a recent shark attack on a Spanish man recently in the Maldives which they think was near a fish processing plant but which had been closed for a week. They think the sharks were hungry hence why they attached the man swimming nearby. Very sad for him. We therefore did not want to swim too close.

We went over to the other side of the lagoon and came across some areas of coral which had a lot of fish activity as well as coral and that was quite fun. We returned to Stormbird and I prepared to pick up Thaleem. The little 4hp outboard although old was working well.

I picked up Thaleem and managed to prevent him stopping for a coffee etc and we went to Stormbird. We checked each battery in the bow thruster pack and one was bad. We therefore took them all out and put the 4 new ones in and connected them up. The bow thruster hardly worked. Thaleem looked at this and thought if they were wired up in a different way then it would boost the ampage. The bow thruster needed 400 at least. He took some time to think about this.

I suggested in the meantime we got on with changing the poor batteries in the main bank, which new did, and so we changed 4 of those batteries. This made a difference to the Starlink Inverter and also to our main inverter which earlier was not allowing us to make toast. This therefore has greatly improved the main 24v system and the problems I had encountered were because some of the batteries were failing. This all took some time and I was conscious we wanted to move on. However, as the afternoon slipped away I knew we would be unable to move. I was sorry for my crew but what could I do.

We then moved on to the 9.9 outboard and the spark issue was that a wire was poor. Once cut and a new connection made we were getting a spark and we briefly started it on the back. We then got it down on to the dinghy and it would not start. Thaleem then looked at the fuel pump which was fine. He then looked at the carburetta which was clogged and he had to take it apart and clean it. Those Indians did not service this engine properly either.

Once this was cleaned and all was put together the engine started. Thank god. We took it for a spin and it was now running well.

Thaleem said he thought the issue with the bow thuster was ampage and suggested we buy two more of the new batteries and then it should work. I thought about this and it made sense really and in any event if any of the other batteries go we could switch the bow thruster ones if necessary. He said he could get two from Male tomorrow and leads to connect and I said ok if he came early. He said yes.

I therefore ran him to the ferry back to Male. He then said he did not have the money to buy the batteries and could I come to Male in the morning and we would get them together and return by ferry. I had no alternative really so I agreed to get the 8.00am ferry in the morning to Male.

I returned to Stormbird and was a trifle hot and annoyed really. There was some positives in that both outboards worked and we had seemed to resolve the 24v system in terms of battery levels. However, the bow thruster remained an issue.

We all had a cold beer on deck and enjoyed the sunset and I tried to forget about the frustration of the last few days.We then had an enlarged chicken risotto for supper which was nice.

I have had 3 days of repairs and want to do something else!! Let’s see what tomorrow brings.

The picture of today is the wreck we swam around in Hummafuschi. You can see Stormbird anchored in the background

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 currently full which is great but if things change I will make this clear.

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