ROCKLAND — The Capt. Neal Burgess, the ferry that served the midday Rockland-to-North Haven run, had just arrived and unloaded its dozen passengers and handful of vehicles. The boat was a few minutes late, but that wasn’t a surprise, given the howling October winds.
Up in the wheelhouse, Kevin “Bub” Hopkins, the vessel’s captain, takes questions about his job while at the same time deftly backing the boat out, turning it around, and backing it back into the pen. The high tide on the North Haven side meant reversing the usual direction of the boat on that side.
Hopkins, 40, a native of Vinalhaven who still lives there, is younger than some ferry captains, many of whom are retired from operating large ships or tugs.
As is the case with a lot of jobs, it has its routine elements. But passengers rely on him to keep them safe as they travel the miles across the bay; coupled with the extremes of weather, the job has enough challenges.
After our recorded conversation wraps up, during which he struggled to name something unusual he’s seen out the bay, Hopkins remembers something. When the winds blow especially hard, he’s seen what he calls water spouts—similar to small tornados—swirling sea spray up to 60 feet off the surface of the bay.
And during our conversation, he fielded a phone call about a diver who would need get to the ferry to clear its two propellers of rope. Though the captains work to avoid lobster gear, the inevitable happens.
It’s all part of the job of working on the water, from the mundane to the sublime.
WW: So, education-wise, how do you end up getting a captain’s license?
Hopkins: At the time I went to it, it was Southern Maine Technical School. They had a two-year program for “under tug” license, which is now closed, but Castine [Maine Maritime Academy] has a four-year small boat program.
And after SMTC, I worked on the ferries as a deck hand and kept getting sea time, took the test for the 500 ton [license]. You have to get a year’s sea time.
WW: So the 500 ton, it’s [vessels] in that range?
Hopkins: Right. This [the Capt. Neal Burgess ferry] is 288.
WW: So was it 100 to 500?
Hopkins: Yes. Some guys go to Castine and then go shipping, or retire and come here and run the boat. It works out good for me, living on the island. I can still be on the water and be home.
WW: Do you have a family?
Hopkins: Yep, I’ve got four children—two step-children, two of my own.
WW: So how many years have you been doing this?
Hopkins: I started as a deck hand in ’92. Then I filled in, and I worked some”¦ I ran the Island Transport for six months. And then came back as a fill-in captain.
WW: What would that have been”¦ what year?
Hopkins: 2001. In 2009, I went to Swan’s Island as a full time deck hand. And in 2012 I got this job on the North Haven [run].
WW: So it’s been relatively recently—a year or so?
Hopkins: Yeah. I actually started running the ferry when I was 10 when my grandfather was captain. I’ve been doing it quite a while. I just wasn’t getting paid for all of that.
WW: [Laughs] That’s great. Ten-years-old and you were up here, huh?
Hopkins: Yeah.
WW: That must’ve been cool. What do like about the work, about this particular assignment?
Hopkins: It’s pretty much the same work, day-in and day-out; it’s the same but always a little different. We get different weather conditions, different loads. Like today, we had to turn the boat around because of the tide. Interact with people, that’s always—usually—fun.
WW: And you do do that a bit? You’ll come down and”¦?
Hopkins: I’ll come down and see people. I see people at lunch time on the island. Some of the older island people, a lot of them say “Hi.”
WW: Does it ever get boring?
Hopkins: Yes.
WW: [Laughs.] Good answer. Have you ever had a scary experience out here, on this run? Weather-wise, or fog”¦?
Hopkins: It’s been frustrating at times. Boats that are in the way. As far as scary? Usually, we’re tied up when it gets that rough.
WW: What do you think of in terms of the weirdest thing you’ve seen out here, whether it’s wildlife related”¦?
Hopkins: A couple of years ago, when they used to have the sea urchin divers, the different boats they would have around, who would be out on one of those [laughs]? You see so much stuff, you just take it as normal.
WW: Have you ever seen any whales, or anything like that?
Hopkins: Very few. Sometimes you’ll see a pilot whale or a minke whale. But I haven’t seen any this year.
WW: Have you ever had any near-misses with the boat?
Hopkins: Yes. Especially in the fog. You have stop the boat.
WW: So when you say you had stop, what do you do, get on the radio?
Hopkins: Usually you get on the radio, blow on the horn, tracking them on the radar, and then you just come to all stop. Sometimes you have to back down if they’re still bearing down on you.
WW: They’re supposed to defer to you, aren’t they?
Hopkins: Well, if they’re paying attention, watching the radar. Somebody out in the pleasure boat, and I’ve got the license and we hit”¦ I’ve been trained on this. It wouldn’t be good if I hit them.
WW: And you do the emergency runs?
Hopkins: Yeah.
WW: Does that give a certain urgency to it? Do you think, “Someone’s life is in the balance”?
Hopkins: Usually, it’s as soon as we get the call we get there as quick as we can. The hardest thing is having to cancel the boat the next day because the crew is over their hours. People have doctor’s appointments, working on the mainland, so they miss work or their appointments. I know that from living on the island.
WW: When you see somebody running for the ferry just as you’re pulling away, do you ever go back”¦?
Hopkins: Yep.
WW: You do? How do you deal with that, in terms of where to draw that line. You don’t want to, probably, be difficult, but”¦
Hopkins: It’s one those things if you saw it was somebody does it on a regular basis, then you might not go back in. But especially the last trip of the night, or the first trip of the morning, and somebody’s running late”¦ We don’t mind holding the boat for a few minutes if we know. But we don’t like people who make a regular thing out of it.