Resurrection, 7 Ragged Tigers and a New Moon on Monday

4 summers into this crazy escapade it is time to revisit just how we got here. It is a tale that encompasses many twists and turns but ultimately hinges on the importance to young men of mentors and the guidance to become a person that pays attention to the present and ultimately learns the ability to capture the little details to store it all for later, to then apply discipline and long game thinking and carve out a lifestyle that generates joy and freedom. This is the Art of War applied to life, but in a nice way.... 

I grew up in a small provincial town in New Zealand in the early 1970's. It was a time and place where there were no supermarkets, just local stores, one black and white TV channel that finished at 10 or 11pm and a neighbourhood full of kids that formed gangs, the good kind, that roamed far and wide in the weekends exploring the world around us. We would leave after breakfast and not come home until dark. We all knew each others parents and all was good in the world. We would explore creeks at the bottom of our property that turned into streams that disappeared into the hills behind town. We would take cans of baked beans and have campfires in the hills, or disappear on our bikes up the coast to discover hidden beaches. It really was a fantastic upbringing for wild and free kids. 
My first real introduction to the sea came in the form of a book I read as a young boy of 8 or 9 called Windsong Summer by Patricia Cecil Haas, (and here is a link to buy it). It was a random book we got from the school book programme. We would choose these books pretty much solely on titles alone. It was a little bit hit and miss, but generally myself or one of my younger brothers would enjoy whatever came home. Windsong Summer was the story of young boy who ended up living alone on a small yacht in the Caribbean, befriending some "normal kids" and they all have the adventure of a lifetime. It was a tale of resilience, freedom and self reliance. I absolutely loved it. It actually changed the trajectory of my life. It opened up my eyes to opportunity.

1983: My Raleigh 20 represented independence.1985: Getting ready to surf at Mahanga

Growing up in a small sea side town meant I was probably always going to be drawn to the sea. Discovering surfing happened quite organically after being introduced to surf lifesaving by absolute legends in the sport, the Hutchings family. This meant a direct connection to the sea which quickly evolved into a full on addiction to surfing. I used to hit the waves before school, even in winter if it was pumping. I learned to read the sea, the wind and the waves. I got used to seeing sharks and not freaking out. I would walk through a bay full of stingrays to get out the the island break that was in Sponge Bay. All of this on my trusty Raleigh 20 bicycle as a 10, 11 and 12 year old. It seems so weird that I was doing all of that, just independently, meeting up with friends, no cellphones, just hanging out surfing. We would spend weeks in the summertime at my uncle and aunties bach at Mahanga Beach, just north of Mahia, where there happened to be quite a legendary surf break. One of their next door neighbours was a young man in his early 20's, one of the few residents living there fulltime, dedicated to surfing and making a living as a builder and handy man in this very small community. He took me under his wing a little bit, so my surfing improved no end over those summers. These were days of freedom, excitement and the sea. 

In the early eighties, as a young teen, I was really into Duran Duran. Like fully into it. Loved the music and the style. I had older friends that introduced me to their music as their second album RIO came out in 1983. I was becoming a teenager and wanted it all. This was the early 80's and we were being told it was all possible. The sky is the limit. You can be who you want to be. Over the following few years I worked in fashion after school, and even had a "modelling career", well as much as you could in small provincial New Zealand in the 80's. I saw myself as someone capable of attaining the lifestyle depicted in the Duran Duran videos. The rockstar RIO life as described in the video below. This was it. These young men were becoming one of the biggest stadium bands in the world at that time. It was all us 70's kids could ever dream of. Scratch the surface though and we see a fundamental ethos to the equation that was this embedded in this video. The boat. This sailing theme was strong in the Duran world as their singer Simon Le Bon was a committed sailor and had been since he was a young boy. Another piece to the puzzle I didn't even realise I was building.

The next jigsaw piece came together when Simon Le Bon and the managers of Duran Duran bought the iconic maxi yacht Drum. They then set about fulfilling every open ocean sailors dream, entering into the epic Whitbread Round the World yacht race in 1985. I followed this with much interest, even more so when Simon joined the race for the final two legs, which departed from Auckland in New Zealand. It was all over the news here, the audacity of one of the world's biggest pop stars heading off on the adventure of a life time. 
The other day I stumbled across this documentary that they made of the journey, which has become the motivation for producing this entry into my Captains Log, mainly as a record for my kids more than anything, and perhaps the beginnings of a new family conversation.
It is possibly one of the best 52 minutes of Youtube I have enjoyed recently. It reminded me of the inspiration I had for adventure and the burning need to do epic journeys, something that has been with me all of my life but until recently something I had only ever achieved in small doses. 

I started to pay attention to sailing. In the following couple of years the America's Cup started to become a thing here in New Zealand. All of a sudden we had national hero's emerging. New Zealand began to be a powerhouse in international sailing and the likes of Sir Peter Blake, Russell Coutts, Brad Butterworth and Grant Dalton became household names. Around this time I had finished high school, graduated from design school and had a brief taste for life in an ad agency. The normal pathway was not for me so I left and started a period of travelling to quell my thirst for adventure. I travelled, was independent, and surfed again. Surfed a lot. I spent quite a bit of time on Great Barrier Island with a friend that had an ocean going yacht which I had to help periodically clean the hull whilst it was in the water. I toyed with the idea of buying a small sailboat but decided that the learning curve would be far too steep so set it aside. I devoured books on adventure, mountaineering, and sailing. I was never really far from the sea. In New Zealand that is par for the course as we are primarily a long and thin series of islands surrounded by the sea. 

2003: sailing with friends in Tasman Bay2003: a younger David sailing

The years passed, I met Haylee and we settled down into another small New Zealand provincial town by the sea, and close to the Marlborough Sounds. In late 1999 we had a business colleague who had recently sold his fishing business, and his ex fishing partner had bought a homestead in the Queen Charlotte Sounds and was building a lodge. We used to visit there often, and Lochmara Lodge became our go to holiday spot. Anniversaries, birthdays, when we had friends and family visit, we would head into the Sounds and enjoy Shayne and Louise's slice of paradise on the shores of Lochmara Bay. We would sea kayak and swim, walk the tracks and enjoy their fantastic hospitality. Then we had the girls. Life slowed right down, and for 10 years we concentrated on building our marketing and design business as the internet continued to evolve. The story of how we eventually ended up with the boat is covered in this article here, and it happened quite accidently. All of a sudden we were boat owners and spending a vast amount of time on the ocean in the Marlborough Sounds. It seemed I had come full circle and was now embarking on the beginnings of the grand adventure I had always dreamed of. This was a resurrection of a younger version of myself. A person on a quest for freedom and independence, self reliance and discovery. I had come home. 

Now I find myself drawn back into the fold of sailing. I am obsessed with many different sailing channels and the exploration that they are undertaking. The world of sailing has never been more accessible. The learning curve doesn't seem so steep anymore and I dream of the connection back to the 9 year old boy reading about Rolf's adventures in Windsong Summer. I think that it is time to head to our storage shed and find the 44 year old copy of that book so that Alex can read it. I might read it again myself. It is also time to bite the bullet and join a crew in the weekly yacht races. I might take up my friends offer to spend some time on their boat learning the lines. As it happens Bill and Lucy are close friends with Skip Novak, who as a much younger man was the captain of Drum on Simon Le Bon's Drum Whitbread adventure of 1985. The circle closes once again. The wonders of life continually amaze me. You never really know what is around the corner, and with a little persistence and optimism it is completely realistic to follow the dreams of your younger self. You never know where it will lead you, but if you keep your eyes and heart open magic does indeed happen.