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Mike Pignéguy has lived, worked and gone adventuring on boats since he was a young boy and next month he begins a series of talks about his many maritime experiences, at Whangaparāoa Library.
He grew up living on board the family’s boat in the Hamble River in southern England, where, he says, the river was a playground for him and his two brothers.
“Our parents let us get into a dinghy and go exploring, coming home only when we were hungry,” Mike says. “I was always wondering what’s around the next headland – and I am still having those adventures.”
Mike’s father taught him how to handle a boat and at the age of 11 he began crewing on vessels sailing to France.
He joined the merchant navy as soon as he turned 16 and spent 10 years travelling all over the world on those cargo carrying ships.
Mike came to NZ in 1964 to work as a deck officer for the Union Steamship Company. A year later he married Dee, who had recently arrived here from Canada. The couple have lived in Tindalls Bay for six years (Dee is Hibiscus Matters’ gardening columnist).
Mike says he “came ashore” once he was married, and trained as a primary school teacher, but the couple soon bought their first boat and have had one ever since.
The one they loved most was the 96ft Te Aroha, a cargo boat built from a single Kauri tree, which plied the route to Great Barrier every week with Mike at the helm. The Pignéguys then had Te Aroha converted into cabins and Mike has fond memories of the 14 years that he and Dee ran “soft adventure cruises” around the coast.
On the cruises, they were frequent visitors to Tiritiri Matangi Island while regenerative planting was in its early stages there, and there were many encounters with Gulf wildlife, including Mike’s favourite seabirds, the gannets.
He also spent time in the 2000s as a relieving captain on super yachts, in the US and Bahamas. While at anchor in New York he witnessed the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers.
Recently turned 80, Mike is still busy boating, including teaching courses for Coastguard and writing for magazines.
He is teaching his 10-year-old granddaughter to sail in an 11ft dinghy.
“Every time you go out on a boat, it’s a great adventure,” he says. “That never changes.”
Mike’s Coastal Cruises talk, the first of a series of three, is at Whangaparāoa Library on Wednesday, July 19 at 10.30am. RSVP essential at WhangaparaoaLibraryEvents@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz
