A life on the water: Islander Sherri Surozenski is a skipper out of Bridgeport

If you grow up on Shelter Island, your birthright includes an intimate connection with creeks, ponds and the bays around you. Water is as natural to the Island kid as sidewalks and bright lights are to the city kid.

But the numbers of Islanders who grow up to make a living from the water has dwindled over the years. One Islander, Sherri Surozenski, who knew what she wanted from the time she was a girl, has done just that, finding a life that fulfilled an ambition she had to be on boats, out where saltwater rules.

Capt. Surozenski is currently skipper of The Hunter, a 65-by-17-foot “launch boat” out of the deep-water port of Bridgeport Conn., working on Long Island Sound. A launch boat is primarily responsible to bring pallets of food, equipment, gear, clothes, other items, and sometimes crews to ships and boats.

“The crews look forward to seeing us,” the captain said with her trademark understatement.

In addition to working on the launch boat, she sometimes works on the dock at Bridgeport for the Bridgeport and Port Jefferson Steamboat Co., which is owned by  McAllister Towing of Connecticut.

Capt. Surozenski fell in love with boats because ‘I was best friends with Cliff Clark’s daughters,” she said, speaking of the president of South Ferry. “I was always down there with them, and with other friends.”

A legendary high school athlete, she was inducted into the Shelter Island High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 2013 and was known for her fierce competitive streak by teammates and opponents. At the induction ceremony, her volleyball coach, the late Garth Griffin, said she was an athlete who had talent, but brought much more to her game. “Tenacious,” “hard and fiery,” but also “dependable” were some of the accolades he gave his player. Mr. Griffin noted that Sherri also excelled at field hockey. “I can’t understand,” he said, “a sport that would give Sherri a stick.”

She had friends who worked for South Ferry, and applied for a job and got it. She was made captain in 2000. When she moved to Ansonia, Conn. to be with her fiancé Megan McCue — the couple will be married later this summer — she asked Mr. Clark for a reference so she could apply for a job with the Bridgeport company. “He said, ‘I’ll do better than that,’ and he called the general manager of the company to recommend me,” the captain said.

Mr. Clark said last week that, “I’ve known Sherri all her life. She was a star athlete, hardworking, and scrappy. I find former athletes tend to be good employees. She was a very reliable worker and took her job seriously every day.”

She has had some hairy moments working on the Sound, where the situation can turn rough in just a matter of minutes. One she remembers is a night when one of the owners of the company was aboard to check out operations. “It was crazy weather,” Capt. Surozenski said. “We left Bridgeport and ran into huge rollers. It really tested my eyes for to see something, it was so dark. But it was O.K.”

She gets to Shelter Island at least once a month, just recently home for Father’s Day, celebrating with her dad, Richie Surozenski and mother, Sharon.

“Megan was surprised the first time she came,” she said. “She really loves it. I knew she would.”