Heads up for a rite of passage!

Heads on yachts, as we all know, represent a range of challenges. Some are physical, some mechanical, and some spiritual.

My personal date with destiny came after a lovely weekend sail on Sobek with the family, when someone broke the cardinal rule of ‘No Number Twos’ on board. The reason for this draconian measure, which may seem barbaric to some, is that our heads is a fairly simple ‘seawater in, unpleasantness out’ affair, powered by a medieval hand pump. As such, we try to avoid anything too substantial passing through our system, and then the boat’s system, as it were. There’s the environmental side as well. And I’ll leave it at that.

For those of you still with me, my date with destiny aligned neatly with one of the hottest days of the year. The family had by now disembarked (the culprit remaining tight-lipped despite vigorous interrogation), Sobek was bobbing gently on our mooring on the Dart, and it was time to face up to my responsibilities.