Cait Field, Meghan Hart and Martin Obysovsky all recently logged the required 360 days at sea, passed a rigorous exam and earned captains' endorsements to officially become captains themselves.
Cait, who was a sailing instructor for seven years in New York before working in San Francisco and joining CHL in 2007 as a schooner mate, said the hardest part was tracking down details for her hours logged at sea - vessel names and registration numbers, former employers, etc.
"At one point I had to climb under the shrink wrap of an old boat I used to operate, that was out of the water for the winter, to try to find the registration number. Turns out it had been removed years ago, but luckily my old boss had the documentation," she said.
For the new captains, learning to handle the vessels wasn't difficult - they have all been honing their sailing skills and learning to drive the yacht for years. It was being in the classroom, getting down to the nitty gritty of nautical language, that struck Meghan as a challenge.
Classroom time wasn't required, but she said taking classes was a great way to get comfortable with terminology and prepare for every possible scenario at sea.
"It is one thing to be on the water and on a boat and it is another thing to be in a classroom learning the language of the coast guard," she said.
Captain Meghan Hart Both Martin and Meghan work on both the yacht Manhattan, as well as the schooners - one of which, The Imagine, is now operating at Chelsea Piers. Cait, who is a doctoral student, works on the sailboats and said she'd love to occasionally captain one of the schooners.
"Other than that I'd love to be able to use it in the future to operate a research vessel. I study electric fish from the Amazon, which is definitely conducive to being on the water," she said. "I've still got a few more years of schooling though so that's not in the too-near future. Expect me to be in New York Harbor for a while."
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