[3] Originally from San Francisco, she spent time in Evans, Georgia, where she attended Lakeside High School,[4] and was resident for a period in Michigan.
[4] McCue graduated with a Bachelor's degree in business administration in 1999, and also studied celestial navigation during sailing trips in the summer breaks.
[5] While undertaking her degree, she undertook an internship for Chiquita Brands International working on one of their cargo ships, transporting bananas from Ecuador to Long Beach, California.
After graduation, she moved to Maui in the Hawaiian Islands where she stayed with her cousins for six months, working as a general deck hand on a catamaran undertaking tourist cruises to the Molokini crater.
She attended the Maritime Institute of Technology and Graduate Studies (MITAGS) in Baltimore in 2009 where she earned her Chief Mate and Master's Licence to enable her to take command of a vessel.