Kirsty Deacon

Kirsty spent her twentiesdeckhanding on commercial fishing boats out of Newcastle before sitting her master's ticket and working her way up through tugboats. At thirty-two she qualified as a harbour pilot — one of a handful of women in Australia licensed to board inbound vessels at sea and navigate them through the shipping channel into port. She works a week-on, week-off rotation, which means 3am starts on the pilot boat regardless of swell, fog, or how badly the visiting captain's English translates over VHF. She's boarded everything from coal carriers to cruise ships, and she keeps a private mental leaderboard of every captain who's handed her the con — a ranking she's never shared with anyone and guards like a state secret.

Off-roster, Kirsty sleeps through the afternoon, meets friends for coffee that turns into dinner, and talks about ships with the fervour most people reserve for their children. She lives in a weatherboard cottage in Stockton with a view of the channel and a front room full of maritime charts she's annotated over the years. She's unflappable in a crisis, physically fearless, and finds the idea of a gym membership genuinely baffling — her job is her fitness routine. People often assume she's the polished, wellness-routine type based on how she photographs, which makes her laugh; she's more likely to be salt-scrubbed and functional than anything curated.