Clear Sailing With Captain Tiffany of Safari Explorer

Women make up a very small percentage of the global seafarer workforce, with estimates consistently around 2 percent. But UnCruise Adventures has a much higher number of women behind the sailing wheel.

UnCruise Adventures prides itself on having “the best team in the industry,” and this, of course, extends to its ships’ captains. Captain Tiffany McKeriman of Safari Explorer is one of them. She grew up in Maui, where she started working on day boats as a deckhand and then worked her way up in the maritime industry. In her field, there are just two ways to become a ship’s captain: graduate from maritime school with a four-year degree and come out with a license for a cruise ship or tanker; or, you can be a “hawspiper” (the hawspipe is the chute through which the boat’s anchor is raised on the bow). That’s how Captain Tiffany did it.

“You start as a deckhand, you become a mate, and then you test with the Coast Guard and get your license,” she tells me towards the end of our cruise through the Hawaiian Islands. Eventually, she started captaining boats in Hawaii and did so for a number of years, before she came to UnCruise about four years ago.

She likes the variety of the cruises offered by the company—UnCruise Adventures “go between Alaska, Hawaii, the Pacific Northwest, the Columbia River, and Mexico—every week’s a little bit different,” she says. “Things change.”

Boat folk know all too well how changeable the ocean can be due to any number of factors, such as winds, tides, seasons, changing weather, sea levels, and storms, which can seem to blow up out of nowhere. The ocean’s surface is a moody element and can also be influenced by the moon and sun. It takes a quick-thinking person to keep a vessel and its passengers safe at all times.

She cites the moment on our Hawaiian Seascapes cruise when it was too rough one morning for us to go ashore on the island of Lanai’i. “We went around the corner,” she says, “and we found calm weather, and did different activities.” I love that she refers to sailing to a different coast of an island as “around the corner”—as though commandeering a 145-foot vessel is like driving a very large car on water. And the Safari Explorer has quite a lot of grunt. I know—I visited the engine room one night wearing 3M Hearing Protection headphones.

Captain Tiffany has more tales to tell about “captain’s choice.” One time, she was responding to an emergency weather warning during a cruise around the Big Island. A storm was coming rapidly up from the south. “We knew the storm was coming, so we ran and hid.” (The land metaphors are endearing.) “Normally, this is the rougher side,” she continues, showing me on a map where the storm was headed, “and so we don’t ever come up here. But it was such crazy weather they were forecasting that I said, Let’s go to the North Shore and hide from it, because I’m cautious, and so we hung out for a day. The storm hit overnight, and in other locations on the Big Island, people were getting flooded, and lawn chairs were flying,” she recalls. But where they were was paradise. “The waterfalls were raging, the seas were calm, we did a ten-mile skiff tour of Waipi’o—and you never get to do those things. It was just beautiful.”

In fact, watching through binoculars as the skiffs headed out on their excursion, she wished she could go with them.  

“I think it was the highlight of my season because it’s beautiful, going in between all these islands.” And even though conditions are variable between each island and on different shores of each island, the challenge to be both knowledgeable and spontaneous is part of the job and sometimes creates opportunities that are “awesome.”  

I wonder aloud if there is a secret society of female sea captains? “Not really,” she says. “I know there are some Facebook groups, the ones I’ve seen are a little more for women in the merchant marines, where they’re on tankers, tug, and barge, the more male-dominated industry side of things. But that side of things doesn’t really interest me.”

Captain Tiffany is a democratic figure and gets the job done while fitting in with the rest of the crew. The rise of women in the maritime industry, she feels, is growing organically. “I got my license in 2007, and when I started driving out of Maalaea Harbor, I was one of three female captains in the whole harbor. And with UnCruise, we are a fairly small company with eight boats, I am one of three female captains just in the company.”

She credits UnCruise CEO Dan Blanchard with being very progressive, but there are “just more female captains now than there were when I started 17 years ago.”

When not steering the Safari Explorer through calm seas abundant with sea mammals, Captain Tiffany enjoys travel. She is next heading to Vietnam. She recently visited Portugal. She works four weeks on, and has four weeks off. She plans personal trips for that time off and then, as Captain of the Safari Explorer, meets the vessel wherever it may be. On her bucket list for future travel is Australia, South America, Africa, and Antarctica. “I definitely have quite a bit more to do,” she smiles.

I asked her what she always packs on an UnCruise voyage. When she is working those four weeks, she always packs her”My Kindle. “I just like to read when I have downtime. We can only work 12 hours a day. Lugging books around can be very difficult, so having the Kindle allows you to have all the books you want at your fingertips. That’s how I like to relax.”

And should you plan a trip to Captain Tiffany’s island home of Maui, she has a tip for you. Even though every last secret has been spilled in tourism guides, such as the legendary Road to Hana, there is a surprising way she recommends. “Doing it with a tour is always a good thing because it lessens traffic. It’s kind of a crazy road to drive. So, just jumping on one of the tour buses is a good idea because you don’t have to worry about all those hairpin turns and one-lane bridges. You can just kind of sit back. It’s definitely a beautiful thing to check out.” 

And as for the water? The ocean around Maui is known for its clarity, which is due in part to its isolation in the Central Pacific. It is home to a diverse array of marine life, including the Hawaiian monk seal, manta rays, spotted eagle rays, and humpback whales. 

“I worked as a divemaster out here for a number of years while I was working as a deckhand, before I got my captain’s license, and the scuba diving off Maui is top notch. It’s beautiful, including the reefs, the turtles, and the quality of the water.”

Find out more about the Safari Explorer here.