|
Total Run:
1,082
Nautical Miles from Blake Island, Puget Sound
Total Average Speed: 5.7 Knots
Hours From Departure: 190 Hours or 7.9 Days
Distance To Go This Leg: 100.3 Nautical Miles to Long Beach
Estimated Time Of Arrival: 8:00 a.m. Anchorage, tomorrow, Tuesday
Present Course: 105 Degrees East by South
Winds: West-Southwest at 5 Knots
Seas: Rippled Surface
Swells: Slight
Barometric Pressure: 1016 Millibars
Air Temperature: 60 Degrees
Visibility: Hazy, 10 Miles
Skies: Clear
Sea Floor: The ocean depth in this part of the channel is 325 Fathoms or
1,950 Feet. This area is known as the home of the California Sea Lion, and numerous
sitings of them have graced this morning's passage. Position:
USS New Jersey is now within the
Santa Barbara Channel, transiting down the Southbound Coastline Traffic Lane of the Vessel
Separation Scheme, designed to accommodate the volume of in-bound and out-bound shipping
traffic to and from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. She is 20 nautical
miles southwest of the nearest city, Santa Barbara, California. Visible off her
starboard bow and beam are the islands comprising the Channel Islands National Park, Santa
Cruz, Santa Rosa and San Miguel. California's Highway 101 runs down the coastline at
this point through Santa Barbara, Carpinteria, Ventura, and Oxnard.
Securing Tow Control
Captain Kaare L. Ogaard, Jr., former U.S. Navy submariner
from New Bedford, Massachusetts, exercises precision control over USS New Jersey's towing
behavior as he navigates her homecoming journey from Bremerton to Philadelphia.
He has more than 25 years in the towing industry, and
earlier this year completed a 15,000 Mile tow of the aircraft carrier USS Oriskany from
San Francisco to Beaumont, Texas via the Strait of Magellan at the near-tip of South
America.
Ogaard's presence on the New Jersey tow provides
spectators and crew alike with the same sense of confidence and reliability that the
battleship he's responsible for towing provided to commanders, crew and on-shore troops in
four wars.
As the Captain and his six crew members prepare to enter
their first port-of-call at Long Beach tomorrow morning to re-fuel for Panama, the
45,000-ton battleship, known as a "capital ship tow," will be drawn
progressively closer and closer to Sea Victory's stern.
At one point after leaving Bremerton and Puget Sound, she
was just shy of the entire length of the Crowley tug's nearly 4,000-foot primary tow wire.
Ogaard says a full-length release of wire helps avoid the high-seas wave-action
shocks that normally come with an open-ocean journey. Since entering the Pacific from
Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the Captain has let out an additional 20-feet
or so of wire each evening to achieve near full-length.
This morning, he has begun to shorten its length.
As the New Jersey gets closer to Long Beach, he will have her as close as possible
to the Sea Victory for maximum control and maneuverability going into the vicinity of Los
Angeles Harbor and the gateway to Long Beach's San Pedro Bay.
This afternoon, additional precision work will be done to
shorten her tow wire even more. By sunrise tomorrow morning, all will be set for her
entry into the harbor she called home for so many of her service years.
Captain Ogaard and his crew will have her ready, close at
hand, and fully in control. That's their role, and they exercise their
professionalism with the efficiency one would expect from a group of mariners bringing USS
New Jersey home again.
Submitted by Bob Wernet onboard the Sea Victory.
|
