On any Blue & Gold ferry—anytime and anywhere—you very well may be aboard a vessel operated by Captain Dave Houghton. "I’m the extra board guy right now," he said. Be it the Bay Cruises, San Francisco Bay Ferry, RocketBoat—at Blue & Gold, captains call out sick just like anybody else.
Capt. Dave Houghton maneuvers San Francisco Bay Ferry’s Vallejo into position at the historic San Francisco Ferry Building. Photo by Matt Larson
By Matt Larson
Published: December, 2012
On any Blue & Gold ferry—anytime and anywhere—you very well may be aboard a vessel operated by Captain Dave Houghton. "I’m the extra board guy right now," he said. Be it the Bay Cruises, San Francisco Bay Ferry, RocketBoat—at Blue & Gold, captains call out sick just like anybody else.
"There’s always a vacancy open, so there’s this position to fill those spots on a daily basis." After a few months, Houghton will be on a more regular routine as the captains alternate schedules, but he’s enjoying the variety for the time being.
In order to fill any spot, a captain must be an expert on all Blue & Gold excursions. "You have to be qualified on every boat and every run," said Houghton. Which is to say, "I do every boat and every run." But it’s not just driving the boats that these captains are ready for. "Everything Blue & Gold does we have to be qualified on," Houghton explained. "We have to know how to start up every boat, know every run and every routine."
Out of all the boats under Blue & Gold’s command, Houghton doesn’t have a favorite. "Whatever boat I’m on is my favorite boat that day," he said. "That’s the honest truth. Some of them don’t handle as well as the others, but I like that. It’s a nice variety." He does, however, have a favorite ferry run. "I like the high-speed boats, so my favorite run is probably the Vallejo baseball runs. When the Giants are in town we do the baseball runs and get to go watch the game, it works out pretty well."
A Hawaii native and current Tiburon resident, being around the water is nothing new to Houghton. "My dad was a Navy pilot for 30 years so we got stationed all over the place, almost always on the water," he said. "The farthest I’ve lived away from the ocean is where I live right now—about 130 yards from the water. I’m pretty spoiled."
Houghton wasn’t always destined for an office on the Bay; he graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with a degree in biochemistry. "I don’t even think about that stuff anymore," said Houghton. "It’s all boats—well, boats and babies." Houghton has two children, ages 5 and 10, at home, as well his wife and a 25-year-old stepson. "They keep me pretty busy."
Family is a big part of Houghton’s life these days. He’s spent many years working on the water, be it chartering and racing sailboats for 10 years in the Caribbean or captaining right here in the Bay. However, "Family is the biggest adventure I’ve ever been on," said Houghton. "It tops all of them."
Having worked here in the Bay since 2000, including six years with Golden Gate Ferry and three with Blue & Gold, Houghton talked about what’s been keeping him on the water all these years: "I love it. I’ll do anything on the water. It’s just such a big part of my life." He’s experimented with other occupations. "I’ve done the office job, I went to work as a biochemist on the East Coast, but that’s all just some old story now."
His favorite part of the job is working with the passengers and the crew. "The people," he said. "The boat handling is just second nature now. It’s the passengers and the crew. I get to work with an interesting cross-section of society; it’s fun."
And it helps to be a morning person. He rowed crew in college, starting at 4 a.m. every morning before class, and it has stuck with him. "It’s a wonderful thing to watch the sun come up on the water every morning," Houghton said. "It’s something that’s been a part of my life since I was a little kid, I’m blessed to be able to still have that as an adult—and get paid to do it. Any day on the Bay is a good day."
