If he had never blown out his knee skiing back in 1983, Patrick Hogan may have never realized what his true passion in life was: boats.
Through my rehab process a friend of the family gave me a little sailboat because I couldn’t do any weight-bearing activities, said Hogan.
Within six weeks of his first day on Bolton Lake, Hogan was hooked. He bought a catamaran and quickly learned to commandeer a range of boat types. His boating expeditions took him on deliveries from Newport, RI to the Caribbean, Charleston, SC to Bermuda, all over California, regattas throughout the East Coast, captaining yachts for family vacations and more. Wherever there’s a large body of water to sail on, chances are Hogan has sailed it.
At that point in his life (the ’90s and beyond) boating was a passionate hobby but not something that paid. It was also something that led to disownment by his own family because it was a `dream that was too big.`
`I figured the money would come. It’s been a pauper’s life for a long time,` said Hogan.
Well, it’s a pauper’s life no more because Hogan’s years of boating experience has finally paid off, and in a big way.
Hogan, now 50, works for Jay Cashman, Inc., the company responsible for dredging the Hudson. He captains a tugboat and pushes 140-foot barges around, transplanting from Ellicott City, MD where his wife Jane still lives, to Glens Falls where he works midnight to noon.
`I’ve been doing dredging and drilling work. This is so different but yet so cool because it’s a whole different avenue of boating I’ve never encountered before,` said Hogan. `To push a barge around loaded, it’s an awesome experience when you land it at the dock.`
Hogan primarily works in the local area but sometimes gets called to harbors in New York City or elsewhere to captain.
So how did Hogan go from working as an engineer and setting sail for seven or eight weeks of unpaid vacation, to making a better income than he could have ever imagined?
`My wife finally told me, ‘You haven’t had a real job, you’ve been self-employed your entire career and the only time I ever even see you passionate is on a boat. I think you should be on a boat and we’ll figure out the money,’` said Hogan. `Jane has supported my dream as a sailor and never backed away in good and bad economies.`
Captaining a tugboat on a river is lightyears away from Hogan’s days of exploration and recreation. While it’s a different type of fulfillment, the stories from his days at sea are aplenty.
Take, for example, the time he raced in regattas alongside some of the world’s best sailors. Then there’s the time he fell overboard into the Gulf Stream in the middle of the night. Once, a boat he used to own capsized and Hogan saved a person stuck inside by calming him down enough to swim out and perch safely on top until the Coast Guard arrived.
`It was never taught to me but I knew when the Coast Guard came and was pulling people off the boat one by one, I’d be the last one rescued,` said Hogan. `When everyone else is safe, I’ll go.`
It seems like sailing the country and the world would have satisfied Hogan’s curiosity and boating bug; but there are still a few things on his sailing to-do list.
`I want to go over and sail with some French sailors in Europe, that’s in the dream hopper,` said Hogan. `I want to sail the southern oceans down around Cape Horn and the Horn of Africa and around Australia. I’d love to do that part of the ocean because it’s unchanged.`
Sailing has been more than an adventure. It’s taught Hogan things about himself he said you can’t find anywhere but out on the deep blue sea.
`When you’re on the ocean you lose a lot of noise, there’s no lights, no life. When you’re on the ocean there’s no light pollution and you can see the stars and the Milky Way,` said Hogan. `When you see those things with no filters it’s an awesome experience. Or, when you’re sailing and there’s whales or dolphins next to you, you realize how small you really are In the whole scheme of the world and universe, we’re all but a little speck.`
Now that he’s got a full-time job in boating, it doesn’t seem like Hogan could possibly find time to check items off his sailing list.
`There’s time in between jobs. I’m here June to November and I was here for six months in 2009. I’m hoping that on this call I end up staying here a good part of six years,` said Hogan. `They’re talking about this job lasting and if I do my job right and I can help the process, [I’ll stay].`
Hogan said unlike some people who may be involved with dredging or drilling because they need a day-to-day job, for him, there’s not a day he doesn’t get look forward to work.
`Every evening when I wake up, I’m super excited about going to work as I would be the first day on the job,` said Hogan, who said he’s taken shifts that last two days with no sleep. `That never fazes me because the experience is just so exciting and the coolest.`
As long as he’s `chasing the dream` rewards will come, said Hogan, and the best aren’t monetary.
`It’s the great experiences and great people I’ve met,` said Hogan. `When you watch a husband and wife sail off after working with them for some time and you get a letter or phone call from them about what a great time they’re having, those are the things I’ve gotten that you really can’t buy.`
But there’s something priceless that sailing has given Hogan that rises above the rest.
`One of the best things I got out of sailing was my wife, who loves the sport and just loves to cruise,` said Hogan, who met her on a boat in 2000. `We would race every Wednesday night together and I knew the night I met her I had met my bride every time we get on a boat together it is like magic.`
Everybody tells Hogan his life is an unwritten book, so if he can ever get it down on paper, he said it might just happen.
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