Dick McCurdy always just wanted to be on the water. He grew up in Port Townsend, WA, sailing and racing with friends. At the University of Washington he was captain of the sailing team. After finishing graduate school he bought the bare hull of a Cape George 36 sailboat, finished the boat himself with help from friends and sailed it around the world. He then had a ten-year stint on tug boats, working his way up from deckhand to captain. That experience allowed him to transition to becoming a Puget Sound pilot, a position he held for twenty-five years. He still cruises in a 32ft aluminum powerboat. As you might imagine he has a lot of stories! We talk about growing up in Port Townsend, circumnavigating in the 70’s, running tug boats up to Alaska and down to California, what it is like being a pilot, sneaking onto a cruise ship to take a bath, facing down a young man with a machine gun in Egypt, sailing with a parrot, cruising the Red Sea, voyaging with a baby on board, and much more. I’m Jim Heumann – here’s the interview.
