Braca Tai and his saltwart mates recently celebrated his first birthday. A few days in advance of his actual birthday date, 17th October, we decided it was prudent to toast his first year with the people who’d been there for a significant part of B’s life and who have watched him go through so many first stages.
Braca started his sailing career at five and a half months and completed his first ocean passage by his six month birthday. At a year, he has covered 6,000 nautical miles and visited six countries.
Braca’s travel mates have watched him learn to crawl, stand and take his first steps. He walks with a sailor’s gait and has learned to obey the rule of one hand for yourself and one for the ship. He has developed a keen interest in outboards, tillers, gear levers, winches and lines. Not the typical objects in a toddler’s toy kit, but useful ones for an aquatic life.
Spoon fed salt and sea water, play toys rope ends and winch handles, Braca is following in the footsteps of his forefathers and look to be continuing the long line of Daubeny mariners.
Atea 
Come Come Madam….Daubenys are by definition SOLDIERS. From Hastings…through the Crusades, 100years war, Peninsula campaigns..The Boxer Rebelion, 1st and 2nd World wars. It’s only recently that the breakdown in the Martial skills have deserted, albeit I am sure reluctantly, some offshoot of the TRUE BLUE blood that we exhibit. get yr son on dry land and give him a musket. He don’t need no battleship. love to you all GUP. xxxx
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OH and another thing…don’t forget GENERAL HCB Daubeny…mentioned in all the history books of the Crimean war and fought hand-to-hand with the Ruskies. Bayonets and muskets not bloody cutlasses then. pah ! Nature ensures Braca will be a soldier…Nurture might just might turn him to a sailor. Powder monkey my eye. much love GUP xxx
Mind you he is a handsome boy…reminds me of his Great Uncle
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Ahoy there GUP – military past maybe, but the future is all water. Rising sea levels don’t you know. We are preparing our boy for life when he can sail up to your doorstep. Mind you, he may end up fed up of the ocean, and keen to be a farmer…..
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I’m an American – seeing what we put our soldiers through, there is no way I’d encourage my little man to join the forces. B’s a history of the enlisted on his maternal side as well. As John says, times are a changin’… if NZ isn’t submerged by global warming by the time he’s an adult, a farming life tucked in New Zealand back country sounds safe to me!
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