Total Run This Leg:
1,327.6
Nautical Miles
Total Average Speed: 5.26 Knots
Hours / Days This Leg: 252.5 Hours, 10.52 Days
Distance To Go This Leg: 1,620 Nautical Miles to the Balboa Sea Buoy,
Panama
Estimated Time Of Arrival: 7:00 a.m., Saturday, October 16
Present Course: 117 Degrees, Southeasterly
Winds: Southwesterly airs, a light breeze
Seas: Rippled Surface
Swells: South-Southwest at 9 Feet
Barometric Pressure: 1009 Millibars
Air Temperature: 81 Degrees
Sea Temperature: 82 Degrees
Visibility: 10 Miles +
Skies: Partly Cloudy, Cumulus Clouds
Sea Floor: 1,907 Fathoms or 11,442 Feet Position: USS New Jersey is 35.5 Miles
Southwest of Buffadero Bluff, marked by a light visible from 23 miles. The coast
between this bluff and Punta Mangrove, 33.5 Miles to the East-Southeast, is backed by
several bluffs for the initial 16 Miles, then by an unbroken sandy beach for the remaining
17.5 Miles.
BB-62 Visitor Questions And Answers
Question: I noticed in the "Ship's Fact
Page" that the USS New Jersey's two outboard propellers have 4 blades, and the two
inboard propellers have 5 blades. Why is that?
Answer: Captain Ogaard notes the difference
in the diameter of the two pairs of propellers: 17 feet, 5 inches on the two inboard
wheels, and 18 feet, 3 inches on the two outboard wheels.
He still thinks that the reason for that is probably due
to the shape of the hull, and possibly to prevent harmonics with all four propellers being
the same. They're more likely to have equal thrust this way. 5 blades times 17
feet, as opposed to 4 blades times 18 feet, perhaps came out to equal thrust.
Question: I would like to know about the
towing cable and how it is hooked up.
Answer: Captain Ogaard begins the
description from the tug end of the wire, and works towards the ship.
This is a 3,970 Foot, 6 strand wire tow cable. It
has a poured socket in the bitter end. That socket is shackled with a 3 Inch safety
tow shackle to 2 shots (1 shot = 90 Feet), so 180 Feet of 3 1/2 Inch stud link chain,
which I believe is Grade 3 Navy, which is very high quality and high strength chain.
This 180 Feet of chain is further connected into a 250
Foot long wire pennant. This pennant is 2 1/2 Inches in diameter. That pennant
is further shackled into 3 shots (once again, a shot = 90 Feet), so that's 270 Feet of the
ship's anchor chain, which is 3 3/8 Inch diameter.
About 260 Feet of this chain extends out past the ship's
center bullnose, and that chain on the bow of the Battleship New Jersey is dead ended by 3
massive turnbuckle, pelican hook attachments. Its wire is wrapped around the wildcat
where it spills down the spurling tube to the chain locker. It is further secured to
itself by many passes of wire rope and cable clips. The wildcat break is set and the
engaging gear for the winch is locked in gear. The chain is firmly attached to the
ship.
Question: How close to Florida will the ship
be when it passes off Fort Pierce?
Answer: Captain Ogaard says more than 48
Miles.
Submitted by Bob Wernet onboard the Sea Victory.
|