Our first venture into sailing was in December 1980 when we purchased a 10'6" sailing dinghy and launched on Lake Waikere at the back of our farm at Ohinewai. Cameron (6) & Rachel (4) were forward hands and Joanne, 7.5 mths pregnant with Leith was used as ballast against a stiff breeze. Then [...]

in 1984 we bought a Farr 7.5m trailer yacht called Sound Reason and joined the Waikato Yacht Squadron. With a growing family we soon needed a bigger yacht so in 1989 we bought a half share in a Raven 31 keeler which we kept in Pineharbour Marina, Auckland. For many years it has been Dave's dream to sail off shore so in January 2003 we purchased Pied A Mer which had been bought by a NZer who had been living in Guam, from an American doctor. We spent the next 15 months doing a refit on her and then in May 2004 sailed to Tonga, then on to Samoa, Wallace Island, Fiji and back to NZ. 2005 saw us in Fiji for 4 months and then sailed back to NZ. 2006 was spent back in NZ as Dave had to have a hip replacement but we did do a cruise down to Fiordland and Stewart Island for 3.5mths in Dec 2006 to early April 2007. June 2007 we sailed to Vanuatu and then on to Bundaberg, Australia where we arrived the end of October 2007.