The engine repair has been a classic example of how things can go wrong in a remote and unfamiliar location with no known procedures and formalities to follow. Our engineer Kanburu clearly knows diesel engines inside out and at his slightly ramshackle workshop can, with the help of an assortment of family relatives, tackle practically any task - except aluminium welding. For this there are workshops in Male. Here in the Maldives each visiting yacht is required to retain a shipping agent to manage all the formalities on behalf of the government and the agent is your first port of call for advice and information. It was Assad, our agent, who arranged our tow and for Kanburu to work on our engine and who sorted the formalities with customs and the port authority for us to berth at Kulhudhuffushi and to leave the dock area. And so it was Assad who arranged for his guys to pick up the heat exchanger from the ferry in Male and to take it to a workshop recommended by Kanburu. Except they didn’t and as far as I can tell took it to one of their own choosing based upon quoted price for the repair and without the first idea of what was required. Kanburu maintains he spoke with the workshop to explain what was needed but two days later the manifold was back in Kulhudhuffushi having had a cursory and completely inadequate welding. There was no way the repaired manifold could go back onto the engine and so it was on the afternoon ferry back down to Male.

By this time Endorphin had completed repairs back up at Uligan and she and Hecla were at our previous anchorage enjoying a few days while our repairs continued. We hoped the repair would be completed in time for us to join them as they passed Kulhudhuffushi. Jon on Hecla suggested he might come into the harbour for a night or two but unless needs must, we really couldn’t recommend it as a place to visit. They decided to skip Kulhudhuffushi and go onto the next planned stop at a ruined resort 40 miles to the south with a great anchorage where they would wait for us.

Unbeknown to us Assad’s guys in Male next took the manifold to a different workshop from the first. They would fly it back up to Kulhudhuffushi on a scheduled morning flight to avoid another 24 hour ferry journey. By eight o’clock in the evening the repair was completed and a photograph appeared to show a good looking repair. With the photo was an invoice for 7000mvr (about £350) that I was put on the spot to approve if the manifold was to be released and taken to someone prepared to carry up to us on the morning flight (the cargo office had by then closed). The invoice was clearly for a large sum of money by any standards as indicated by the embarrassed face emoji on Assad’s message. What choice did I have, given our desperation to get the repair finished? The following morning the manifold was back with Kanburu and we were waiting for him to come and refit it when a message came through asking me to go to his workshop. This could only be bad news and sure enough the heat exchanger had not been filled with water and pressure tested before leaving the workshop in Male; the manifold leaked like a sieve. At this point we had two options. Firstly Kanburu said that he would take the part himself down to Male on the morning flight and supervise the repair before flying back up with it. Secondly we could order a new “cooling assembly” as Yanmar refers to it. We checked availability of cooling assemblies and there wasn’t one in the Maldives. The Maldives Trading and Construction Company - government controlled and, amongst many other things, the Yanmar agent for the Maldives - could import one in two to three weeks but at twice the price listed elsewhere. Kanburu tried Yanmar agents in Sri Lanka but none had one in stock. And then I was asked to speak with “The Boss” who was the owner of an electrical supply company and had somehow become regarded as the head of Kanburu’s family. He could fix things and would use his connections to track down and import a cooling assembly. I went back to the boat to discus with Annie and to see if there was a UK supplier that could send the part out to us. 

Annie had feared the worst and was very down at the prospect of yet more delay. The quickest way of achieving a repair would be for Kanburu to take the park down to Male the following morning. According to Craig at C&C Engineering is Phuket it may take two or three attempts to achieve a successful repair and so there was at least a chance further grinding out and re welding could work. I went back to the workshop and agreed this and at the same time resolved to order a new assembly as a backup to minimise further delay if the repair failed. The following morning Kanburu flew down to Male and I had two options for ordering a new part. I could go through “the Boss” and get one from Singapore via a paint supplier company known to the Boss in about a week or order one through French Marine Motors in the UK with a similar delivery time to Male, but reliant upon DHL to achieve this. Either option involved complications but John at French Marine was extremely helpful and a responsive point of contact so I went for it.

Two days later Kanburu was back in Kulhudhuffushi having pulled strings with a friend working at the airline to get a ticket on the otherwise fully booked flight. I thought he might refit the assembly the same day but he was keen to recheck to make sure it wasn’t leaking and by the time he had done this and we had spent time with his family it seemed best to fit it the following day and run up the engine properly before leaving. Apart from one scare when I discovered oily water underneath the engine that I then realised must have come from when the cooling assembly was drained and removed, the run up seemed successful. We replaced the freshwater with coolant, changed the oil and ran a couple more times to purge air out of the system.

Our time at Kulhudhuffushi did have some interesting consequences. Initially Annie was frustrated that we had been stranded in a not very pleasant location on a rather uninteresting Island but without any opportunity to experience real Maldivian culture and life. The inhabited islands are very different from the resort islands and visits from western tourists are not encouraged. We need to arrange visits in advance through our agent. Kanburu and his wife Habeeba sensed Annie’s anxiety and Habeeba took Annie to visit relatives and cooked us traditional Maldives food. Their son Mohamed speaks very good English and acted as our intermediary when required. They were keen to befriend us and regard us as part of their family (everyone seems related to everyone else on the island and so two additional members could easily be accommodated it seemed). They even offered for us to stay at their house for which we were grateful but declined. We took the family out for a meal, hired a boat for a day trip to a nearby island and Mohamed, Habeeba and daughter Zaina came along.

Things became complicated when business mixed with friendship. I was keen for Kanburu to give us an estimate or hourly rate for his work. However his initial response was that as a friend I should propose what we would pay. This after being keen to know how much our boat cost, how much the replacement part was costing and so on - numbers that we were careful to skirt around. This was a difficulty we have encountered elsewhere and can lead to an uncomfortable outcome for either or both parties. Fortunately at our insistence he proposed an acceptable figure. A further complication arose from requested interim payments that were requested by Mohamed. It was not clear that these were being taken into account in the final invoice from Kanburu and we had to insist that they were when making our final payment. In the end we achieved what we considered to be a very fair settlement but expensive overall given the welding and transportation costs.

We have now left Kulhudhuffushi and are heading south towards Male. Our plan is to fit the new cooling assembly in Male and Kanburu has been insistent that he will come down and fit it for us. This would be a good option as he is familiar with the task and apparently engineers in Male can be difficult to pin down. In the meantime we are at the resort island of Kuredhdhoo where there was the prospect of a meal ashore and scuba diving. Sadly as we went across to sort out our entry we were informed that they had a guest test positive for Covid and no outside visitors would be allowed until the guest had completed quarantine in seven days time……..