Jesse Drake and his son Taten, 6. Thirteen months ago the pair nearly died in Manukau Harbour after an overnight boating trip went horribly wrong. Photo / Brett Phibbs
Even in the worst moments, as Jesse Drake bobbed above and below the merciless waters of Manukau Harbour, exhausted, freezing and with his unconscious 5-year-old son Taten in his arms, he never lost hope.
Across the city his wife Angela was at a baby show - the Titirangi couple's second child was due in six weeks and she'd stayed behind as her husband and son enjoyed their first overnight trip on the family's new 7-metre boat, Outlaw.
There were times he felt helpless, Drake says of the 40 or so minutes he and Taten spent battling for survival after the youngster fell overboard, his dad jumped in after him and the combination of current and wind kept Outlaw beyond their reach.
But giving in wasn't an option.
"As much as there were definitely doubts, and even when I could feel he was unconscious, there was still part of me that was 'just hang on' and hopefully someone will hear me … shouting for help.
"[And] I'm thinking of Angela at home with our unborn daughter. All that stuff that makes you just keep pushing."
But 13 months on and as many Kiwis, Christmas obligations behind them, flock to the water, Drake also knows they were lucky.
Nationwide, 74 people died in preventable drownings last year, including six children aged between 5 and 14, and seven people in tidal waters, according to Water Safety New Zealand.
Manukau Harbour is especially unforgiving to those who come to grief in its 394 square kilometres of water.
The harbour's roll call of tragedy includes New Zealand's deadliest shipwreck, HMS Orpheus, which ran aground on the bar at the harbour entrance in 1863, taking 189 lives.
In October, five lives were lost in three separate incidents in the harbour in one tragic week.
It was a different story 11 months earlier, but just barely - when a kayaker heard Drake's cries for help, and came to the stricken pair's aid, Taten immediately needed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
Later, a doctor would tell the boy's mum she initially feared brain damage because of Taten's "horrendously critical" condition on arrival at hospital.
Drake, meanwhile, was so weak he had to be pulled from the water on to a second rescuer's boat, his vision reduced to outlines punctuated by black and white flashes as he called out "my boy, my boy, my boy".
It's not easy to talk about their close call on a piece of water he's known all his life, the longtime fisher, diver and boatie says.
But he wants others to learn from their experience.
"If I could say to anyone that runs a boat, two things: kids and lifejackets, you just don't let them take it off for any reason.
"And know how to perform CPR … if I didn't know CPR, Taten wouldn't be here."
Their first father-son overnighter on Outlaw started smoothly, with pond-like conditions and settled weather, Drake says.
After a breakfast of sausages and pancakes he anchored Outlaw at the edge of a channel about 800m off Cornwallis Beach, with plans to drop the fishing lines.
But first, Taten needed to use the on-board toilet.
He took his life jacket off.
When he returned, because the freshwater had run out, Drake told his son to wash his hands off the back of the boat.
It was then the 5-year-old tumbled into the water.
Pausing only to take his jumper and shoes off, Drake dived in to rescue his son, who had already been carried 10 metres by the current of the incoming tide.
"I got to him pretty quickly, but as I was holding him he said, 'Dad, the boat' and I knew it was ripping."
Swimming hard, Drake got to within a couple of metres of Outlaw before the wind swung the stern away from the pair.
"I knew then it wasn't within reach any more."
With neither in lifejackets - under Auckland maritime bylaws they're only required to be worn in times of increased risk on vessels longer than 6m - and no way to raise the alarm, Drake decided to save energy by going with the current.
The hope was they'd eventually be able to leave the channel and swim ashore.
"But quickly I knew we were in trouble."
Clad only in singlet and denim shorts, with Taten in shorts, T-shirt and shoes, father and son were no match for the chilly waters, which Drake estimated to be about 18C.
A big focus was on staying calm so Taten didn't panic, Drake says.
"I was just talking to him, saying 'it's all right mate, just keep swimming, keep going'. Keeping calm was probably my main thing.
"It started to turn bad when he was getting tired. He started trying to latch on to me, then it just sort of went downhill from there."
He could see kayakers in the distance, as well as a boat, but struggled to get their attention while keeping himself and 25kg Taten afloat.
"My head would go under the water and then as I'd come up, that's when I'd breathe, yell out. We were probably going like that for a good 15 minutes, where I'm just bobbing in and under the water trying to keep him up so I could yell out and wave out."
By the end his "legs had gone" and the fatigue was overwhelming, but the little boy in his arms kept him going, Drake says.
"If it was just me, I probably wouldn't have made it but having him there I tried a bit harder. I think that we kept each other alive."
When Eleasar Senining first saw Taten in the water he thought the boy had died.
The father-of-two still struggles with the distressing scene he discovered after hearing Drake's pleas for help while fishing from his kayak.
"The little boy, [who] I rescued in the water, sometimes I still cry because I imagine it happening to my children.
"I thought the kid was already dead, because he was really under the water and his colour, he was blue."
Pulling Taten face-down onto his kayak, Senining struck the boy's back as Drake gave his unconscious son mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
Taten then opened his eyes, coughed and spluttered, Drake says.
"He was breathing but he was cold and coming in and out of consciousness. I was pretty panicky, even though we were all exhausted. But I also knew then that we were still in the fight."
Senining's fishing companion Jose Alibar arrived, took Taten on his kayak and began paddling to shore as Senining yelled and waved his paddle at a nearby boatie.
Within minutes Drake had been pulled into the boat of Brad and Evelynne Gilmour.
They were shocked by what happened next, Brad Gilmour says.
"As soon as he was on board he just said, 'you gotta save my baby, you gotta save my boy'. When we found out there was a kid, s**t got serious."
After scooping Taten from Alibar's kayak, Gilmour steered his boat straight on to Cornwallis Beach.
"I got sand all through the motor but you don't really think of that stuff. I'd run it up on rocks if I needed to."
Running ashore with Taten in his arms, Gilmour lay him down on the grass and checked his pulse again - he had one, but it was weak - before patting him on the back to cough up more water, as stunned beachgoers gathered towels to warm Taten and first responders began arriving.
A day would pass before Gilmour knew the little boy he now calls T, after the families became friends, was okay.
"I was s****ing myself."
He was right to worry.
A doctor would later tell Angela Drake her son's condition had been "horrendously critical" when he arrived at hospital at 10.46am after a 13-minute journey from Cornwallis on an Auckland Westpac Rescue Helicopter.
"She said he was so cold they weren't sure if they'd be able to bring him back around, and if he did come back he could have some brain damage."
Taten's correct identification of a pink stegosaurus toy later allayed fears and by 4pm, and with his father now at his bedside, he was asking for an ice-block.
All harbours are challenging, but Manukau is particularly ferocious, given the amount of water moving in and out, Water Safety New Zealand chief executive Daniel Gerrard says.
Safety in and on all our waterways is about being prepared, having good equipment and understanding and mitigating risks.
Water users also need to remember freak occurrences can happen, and how you respond might be the difference between life and death.
"Crikey, this little guy was just washing his hands, had his life jacket off for however long … it's one of those freak ones and they're the harder ones to try and fix.
"But it still seems like dad had enough skills and knowledge to keep the wee guy afloat long enough for help to come, and that's a big takeout. The [school] curriculum is still very loose on swimming and water safety skills … there needs to be a basic level of survivability taught."
Those willing to talk publicly about close calls deserve praise, Gerrard says.
"Otherwise we're just constantly talking about the tragedies. This is a success story."
Friends and family have already told them they've reflected on their own behaviour around the water after hearing the family's story, Angela Drake says.
They hope others will do the same.
"[If Jesse and Taten had died] I would've been pregnant and alone and had my whole life ripped away, because that's what they are."
A Coastguard volunteer had told them it was "very, very rare" for people to survive the situation Jesse and Taten found themselves in, especially in Manukau Harbour.
"She said 'the Manukau doesn't give people back'."
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• Jesse and Angela Drake spoke about their experience in support of the Westpac Rescue Rashies initiative, which promotes CPR skills by giving away 1000 child-size rash vests that unzip to reveal CPR instructions. The $25 vests can also be bought at https://bit.ly/32l8dJf with proceeds to a rescue helicopter of the purchaser's choice.
Much of the South Island is set to plunge below 0C tonight and tomorrow.