December is upon us and we’ve got one more Blue & Gold employee for you to meet before the year is up. We hope you’ve enjoyed meeting your local captains and deckhands. If you see them around, make sure to say hello and let them know you enjoyed reading about them in Bay Crossings—don’t be shy! For the last profile of the year, we have Matt Kirkpatrick, who has been a deckhand for Blue & Gold on these San Francisco waterways for the past four years.
Blue & Gold deckhand Matt Kirkpatrick has always enjoyed living near the water and has a passion for waterskiing, now he spends his days on the water as his occupation. Photo by Matt Larson
By Matt Larson
Published: December, 2013
December is upon us and we’ve got one more Blue & Gold employee for you to meet before the year is up. We hope you’ve enjoyed meeting your local captains and deckhands. If you see them around, make sure to say hello and let them know you enjoyed reading about them in Bay Crossings—don’t be shy! For the last profile of the year, we have Matt Kirkpatrick, who has been a deckhand for Blue & Gold on these San Francisco waterways for the past four years.
A Bay Area native, Kirkpatrick has always enjoyed living near the water, so much so that now it’s his occupation. "I used to be a carpenter," he said. "I had a small business working on houses, then came across this by traveling to and from San Francisco." When asked how carpentry compares to being a deckhand, Kirkpatrick said, "It doesn’t." He added with a laugh, "But I do still have a lot of carpenter friends." He keeps his carpentry skills fresh by fixing just about everything around the house, but it’s more of a hobby now. Kirkpatrick is pleased to be working on the water every day.
"You never know who or what you’re going to come across," he said. "Every day is different, you never know what to expect." Perhaps some of the daily commuters can attest to this, but even looking at the same bridge every day is special: "You see it every day, but the sun will be hitting it at just a little different shade." Spending time on the ferry allows riders to notice the beautiful details like this that we may take for granted with our heads buried deep in an iPad.
Next time you’re on the boat, make sure to look up from your device every once in a while and take in the view. If you’re not sure what to look for, Kirkpatrick recommends one of his favorite sights on all of Blue & Gold’s ferry runs. "Coming from Vallejo, right in between the Tiburon area and Angel Island, you get a view of the Golden Gate Bridge," he said. "It’s a spectacular view."
When he’s not out working on the Bay, Kirkpatrick is often out enjoying it himself in his 18-foot ski boat. He enjoys waterskiing and fishing along the deltas near Antioch, and treks as far as Lake Berryessa and Lake Shasta. He’s been waterskiing for as long as he can remember. The greatest fear from most people is having their legs split apart when skiing on the water—which is a great advertisement for wakeboarding—but Kirkpatrick sticks to the skis. He can attest, though, that when he catches an edge on the water, "It hurts."
Back at work, Kirkpatrick makes sure to put safety first at all times, which he believes is all the more reason to take the ferry. "It’s safer than being out on the road," said Kirkpatrick. "And there’s no traffic. You can just read the newspaper and drink coffee." For many people, their commute on the ferry boat is their entire leisure time of the day.
The boats may look similar to us as we’re just hopping on and off without a care in the world, but for the deckhands there are different things to remember with each vessel. "Each boat is different. You’ve got to learn the build systems, got to know what to do here and there. I try to learn as much as I can every day." And it’s that very dynamic that keeps Kirkpatrick excited to come to work. "I look forward to expecting the unexpected."
What Kirkpatrick also loves about the job is that there’s always more to learn about the boats. "It can be a challenging job," he said. "It could be overwhelming if you let it get to you. You’ve just got to be cautious of what you’re doing."
