As Garrett neared 5 months of age, he found he was yearning for more sailing experience.  In fact he hadn’t been sailing since he was 4 days old and was afraid he might lose his touch if he didn’t get out on a boat soon.  So he convinced his parents that cruising the Harauki Gulf in New Zealand was ideal for this type of adventure.

So in February 2002, off they set from Toronto to Australia to visit relatives, then on to Auckland , New Zealand to catch a glimpse of the America ’s Cup campaign and see the queen, who happened to be visiting at the time.

David, Julie & Garrett boarded ‘Sigame’, a 40 ft. custom built sailboat for a 5 day cruise of the Harauki Gulf with Oliver and Roland, brothers from New Zealand.   When the brothers were asked about having a 5 month old on the boat, their answer was “Babies were born for sailing”.   It seems what they said was true as Garrett settled into his forward bunk on a sheepskin rug, sleeping through the night without a peep.  Could it been the rocking of the boat or the fact that everyone at home was freezing their buns off in the winter cold that allowed his to sleep so peacefully or could it have been that he was visiting the beautiful islands of New Zealand, uninhabited and some unexplored.

The trip went relatively uneventful other than catching a gull in our fishing line, which we eventually got lose and it flew away. One port we set into only had a single farmhouse with a Australian Shepard herding the sheep along the path, we set anchor and setup our racecourse to race our model sailboats.  Garrett attempted to race but his tiny fingers just couldn’t get a grasp of the controls, so he handed them off to his mom who did a good job of keeping Oliver in line on wins vs. losses.

On day three, the wind piped up. So with good breeze we cruised around the outside of the big islands.  Garrett was safely in his car seat on the floor of the boat with many cushions around him for protection.   About 15 minutes into the trip, we checked on him to find that the excitement had put him to sleep!   Born for sailing is right.

As we approached Auckland on our return, we came across the America ’s Cup boats being towed out to a regatta for practice.   We also passed Ranger, a sailboat that for decades could not be beaten in the Auckland harbor, as we waved at the crew all neatly dressed in whites, we thought, we had better return again another year when Garrett can enjoy the trip and steer the boat while we pour drinks!

Of course, this was not the end of Garrett’s sailing adventures down under, we traveled back over to Australia to race a brand new J/24 on Lake McQuarie , just for the fun of it!