So, this guy phones me and says he is TT and can I come and have lunch with him; he wants to discuss a project.

At lunch, this very nice guy from Europe indicates that he is involved in the construction of a ship and has a few electrical issues, among others, and what he wants is for me to fly to Mauritius and get on the ship and fix the few electrical issues.

This is exactly the sort of thing I really like doing and so I say yes, absolutely, and within a few days I am flying to Mauritius. I get there at 22:00 and have arranged for a car to take me to the hotel. The driver meets me outside the airport in a 300-series Mercedes-Benz. The distance from Mauritius Airport to Port Louis is 45 km. We cover this distance in 20 minutes, including stops and traffic lights. During the high-speed ride, I reflect on the fact that, if one wants to have an adventurous life, one must be prepared to die.

The following morning we are up early to catch the customs boat that is going to take us to the ship. The drivers of the customs boat, however, did not get up early, so it is an hour-and-a-half before we are travelling out to sea.

We get to the ship, which is staffed by a crew who speak only Portuguese. They are very nice and very well dressed. There are three flights of stairs to my cabin, which is actually about the size of my dining room and meant to accommodate five people. Fortunately, there is only me, so I can spread out.

After some time, the ship sails and I make my way to the engine room to look at the various problems. The first problem is the fact that the diesel generators, although in parallel and synchronised, are not sharing the load equally. This can be easily corrected using the voltage trim but, since I do not know the word for ‘voltage trim’ in Portuguese, I open the control panel in the hope that something will spring to mind and right by the door is the voltage trim. I demonstrate its use and draw diagrams of kVA and kVAR and kilowatts and everybody nods and understands.

The next problem involves a pump motor which keeps tripping. I ask the engineer if he can get his artisan to tell me what the pump suction pressure and discharge pressure are. After a charades session and it is established that the pressures required is the ‘aperanti’ and ‘discu’, or that is what it sounds like.

I tell TT that we will have to take the motor out and have it tested in Mauritius. He wants to know what test is required and I say we will have to test the rotor with a ‘growler’. This is a device which induces voltage in the rotor and makes a growling noise if there is a broken rotor bar.

Nobody knows the Portuguese word for growler or, as may be required in Mauritius, the French word. I get on the satellite phone at $15 a minute and phone my Portuguese electrical acquaintance in Cape Town and ask him what the Portuguese word for ‘growler tester’ is. He says it is ‘growler tester’.

The sea has got up and so I spend the night lying on my back because, if I lie on my side, sooner or later, I will be pitched onto my back again. I cannot get mellow and pass out since there is no alcohol on the ship.

The following morning, I deal with a problem related to fitting an external emergency stop to a Caterpillar diesel generator. Fortunately, I remember that Caterpillar control panels have the emergency stop in such a way that you have to open a circuit to stop the engine. Knowing this, it is not difficult to fit the external emergency stop.

And then we sail back and I fly home. I have met some very nice people, seen new worlds and . . . had fun. And learned the Portuguese for ‘growler tester’.