Bruce Bird
I am not quite sure where the desire to sail around the world came from. As Jill said I grew up by the sea at Whangarei Heads, a lovely part of New Zealand, with the Pacific Ocean on one side and the Whangarei Harbour on the other. My father was a keen boaty and when I was seven or eight years old he bought a 15' runabout. We spent many happy hours fishing in the harbour. However he was not interested in sailing so I didn't get the usual introduction to sailing a lot of young New Zealanders do by learning to sail on an Optimist dinghy.
I remember once when I was 10 or 11 going to watch the start of a yacht race from Whangarei to Noumea and seeing the yacht sailing down the harbour with their spinnakers up had a lasting effect. Later on when we had to spray gorse on the hills of Dad's farm I would look wistfully at the yachts sailing north to the Bay of Islands for the summer holidays. It had to be better than spraying gorse all summer! So the seeds were being sown. However it wasn't until I was about 16 and an American family moved in the area who had sailed the world in a topsail schooner. Their son was the same age as me and introduced me to sailing in 12' skiff and I was hooked. Their stories of their travels also intrigued me.
I didn't get a chance to continue this interest for quite a few years as I had to finish secondary school and go to University. I choose Massey University in Palmerston North which is not known for its sailing. However I was lucky enough to meet Jill there so it wasn't all bad. As Jill say it was not until I was 22 before I was able to take up sailing again. This was on an 18' trailer sailor sailing out of Mareitai, south east of Auckland. We did a winter racing season there and a couple of cruises. I learnt enough to be dangerous and Jill learnt how to make the tea. Once she had learnt how to do this we decided to buy our own boat. I still remember our first attempt at sailing this on our own which ended up with some battens being lost overboard while trying to put the main up and deciding to give up and spend the night on the mooring. Fortunately the next day was calmer and when had a pleasant sail with friends.
Jill has covered the rest of our sailing career fairly comprehensively. I can only say how lucky i am to have some one who shares the dream and is prepared to work toward it.
Bruce's horoscope from Vanity Fair, September 05, the month he finishes work:
"If you look back over the past 15 years, you'll see this is the moment you have been working toward. As the natural ruler of your 10th house begins its culmination in your solar chart, all the seeds you've planted are ready for harvest, giving you the chance either to establish yourself for the rest of your life or to reinvent yourself and make a spectacular comeback."