President Barack Obama said Thursday during his Jacksonville stop he wanted to see "super tankers" call on Jacksonville ports, an action that would be difficult without a group of expert mariners stationed in Mayport.
The St. Johns Bar Pilot Association has guided ships into Jacksonville ports since 1831.
Capt. Tim McGill, 47, is the association's president and CEO.
"There are only 15 people in the world that can do what we do," said McGill.
The association's membership consists of 13 full pilots and two pilots in training. The pilots are available 24/7 and can be dispatched to inbound ships within an hour and a half.
The association utilizes two Gladding-Hearn St. John's Class pilot boats to deliver its pilots to inbound ships.
Pilots jump from the pilot boat to the inbound ship and climb a ladder on the ship's side to steer the ship to port.
"The summer time can be dangerous to be climbing up the side of a ship with the summer squalls, fog and lightning," said McGill.
He said he prefers Florida's problems to those of his home state of New York, where he was a pilot on the St. Lawrence Seaway.
"Cold weather adds a whole other aspect to ship handling," said McGill, who moved to Atlantic Beach after he was hired by the St. Johns Bar Pilot Association in 2002.
The association's membership tends to ebb and flow depending on retirements, with up to five members retiring over the next decade.
He said pilots train to ensure their skills stay sharp.
"If any one of us has a bad day, an entire ecosystem could be lost," said McGill.
One of the latest class of ships McGill and the association's members will train on include the post-Panamax ships, or the "super tankers" referred to by Obama.
"The newer, bigger ships will present bigger challenges, bigger problems," said McGill.
"They will make the channel real small," he said.
Although the size might be daunting, the ships are well engineered and handle smoothly, he said.
McGill is behind the Jacksonville Port Authority's push to deepen the shipping channel and said he doesn't want to see the area miss an economic opportunity.
"It's vital for this port to get the harbor deepening done. The business is up for grabs right now," said McGill.
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