The Heads

On the topic of the heads, let me share the experience of using this necessary space on a boat with 16 to 22 other people, especially at an angle. It isn't called the heads for nothing: apart from it being the most important basic requirement, it controls your body and the health of your mind in the end, and has also become a centre of attention on Dixie (our nickname for our boat). Of course, sharing it with a group of men assures that it is a regular topic of discussion, and bowel movements are often described in much unnecessary but hilarious detail. Farting is also a regular and usual occurrence, and everyone just basically now ignores it, although I still find it funny and have a little giggle every time someone lets rip. 

This was one of my biggest fears of life on this boat for several reasons: there is only a canvas curtain dividing the only private space on this boat from the rest of the crew. Luckily the boat is always noisy with water rushing past, generator running, or people going about their cooking, cleaning, sailing or chatting business. Issue number one solved!

Smells are also strangely not really an issue because there are ventilation vents and I bought spray for each head - problem number two solved!

Sitting down while the boat is at an angle - now that is a challenge! And pumping afterwards - the biggest challenge and dread and fear of everyone! We all know that if you block the head, you have to clean it up. "Having a one inch pipe for some two inched arse holes could be a real conundrum", I heard one crew member say!

So, when you sit down you just hope that the angle of the boat doesn't cause your bum to touch anything underneath, and I resort to pumping while I'm doing my business. These little boat toilets are very sensitive and have to be handled with care, but they often overflow, especially when not level. So, when it looks like too much water is going in the bowl rather than down the hole, the natural inclination is to start pumping faster and with more force, which is precisely the wrong thing to do. I've seen many men come out of there all sweaty and in agony looking for the bucket, sponge and anti-bac. Even the skipper once came out of the heads with a sheepish and anguished look on his face while holding a plastic bag in the air with a floating turd in it!

The most dreaded picture I often have in my head is that I get thrown out of the cubicle through the curtain with my pants on my knees when the boat is being bumped around by the waves, so I hold on for dear life when nature calls.

So far, so good! Every successful visit to the dreaded heads is a personal achievement!

For the first few days of this second leg of the race we were pounding into the wind on the port tack, but three days ago we got our spinnaker up and we are now sailing with the wind (broad reach) at about an average of 9 to 10 knots. The boat is much more even keeled, and so are all the temperaments and moods around me. The night watch last night was probably the coldest we've had, but it was calm and the moon over the water serene and beautiful. Sunrise provided another stunning photo opportunity, which I wish I could've shared with you all.

One of the highlights so far on this leg of the race, apart from the usual spectacular sunsets, sunrises and moonlit nights over the water, has been the very exciting visit of a pod of more or less 40 - 60 pilot whales and dolphins playing around the boat. And then I got to go up the mast yesterday! The adrenalin rush going up a mast of 29 meters (from water level) on a moving sea had me euphoric for a couple of hours after I had to spike and get the kite halyard from the top of the mast for our spinnaker peel.

'High as a kite' has an exhilarating new meaning and I'll wear the harness whenever I can (everyone always declines the opportunity to wear it because it makes it doubly difficult to go to the loo and restricts movement - we always need two people on each watch wearing a harness in case we need to do a rescue for Man-overboard). I want to make sure I get to go up the mast as often as I can and will take some pictures to share next time!! The view from up there over this beautiful expansive and wide angled, watery landscape is something I will

never forget!