|
Present Course: 353
Degrees Northerly
Winds: Airs
Seas & Swells: Light Rippled Surface
Barometric Pressure: 1011.5 Millibars
Air Temperature: 85 Degrees
Sea Temperature: 82 Degrees
Visibility: 10 Miles
Skies: Broken Overcast Panama
Canal Transit: October 16 - 21 / Balboa Pier 14 - 15, Miraflores and Pedro
Miguel Locks, the Gaillard Cut, Gamboa, Lake Gatun, and the Gatun Locks, and
Cristobal. USS New Jersey's clearance into the Caribbean Sea / Atlantic Ocean was
completed at 11:34 a.m., and her mark for the commencement of the Cristobal, Panama -
Philadelphia, PA Third Leg was passed at 11:42 a.m., Thursday, October 21.
Distance Of Second Leg:
September 21 -
October 15 / Long Beach, CA to Balboa Anchorage, Panama: 2,948.7 Nautical Miles, the
longest leg of New Jersey's homecoming voyage.
Total Average Speed Second Leg: 5.18 Knots
Distance Of First Leg: September 12 - 21 / Bremerton, WA to Long Beach,
CA: 1,193.6 Nautical Miles from the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard to Long Beach, CA
anchorage.
Total Average Speed First Leg: 5.54 Knots
Position: USS New Jersey departed the
Republic of Panama just before Noon today, passing the Cristobal breakwater into the
Caribbean Sea / Atlantic Ocean passageway at 11:34 a.m. Captain Kaare Ogaard's
waypoint marker, the 0000.0 distance point for all future navigational references for the
Cristobal, Panama - Philadelphia, PA voyage, and the official departure point, was marked
at 11:42 a.m.
Here Comes The USS New Jersey ...
The Panama Canal Commission Pilots arrived at 9:46 a.m.
this morning to man the Battleship New Jersey and the tug Sea Victory for her 45-minute
"slow run" departure from Cristobal's Pier 7-A/B to the Cristobal breakwater
marker for the Caribbean Sea / Atlantic Ocean entrance range.
At 10:00 a.m., the Sea Victory left her docking position
at Pier 7-C to come alongside the New Jersey and prepare the chain tonnage and tow wire
for the final-leg of her homeward voyage. She is scheduled to transit 2,096.7 miles
to the Cape Henlopen Sea Bouy, Captain Ogaard's official waypoint for the entrance to the
Delaware River.
By 10:49 a.m., New Jersey was away from the dock.
The Sea Victory's crew did their thing once again, riveting attention on themselves from
dockside spectators and onboard Pilots whose eyes feasted in amazement on the
professionalism and expertise represented by the guys we've come to know who handle the
chain, maneuver the tonnage, secure the shackles, signal their Captain winch conditions,
and protect their bodies from injury.
New Jersey's passage from the dock to the breakwater
beyond Cristobal left time for admiring surveys of a land rising in the far distance
Eastward to elevated sweeps of mountains, then dropping noticeably to the Panama Canal's
height of 300-plus Feet, then rising again to the West, providing an amateur geologist
with the image of an Isthmus.
Captain Ogaard has projected a course for the Delaware
River that will proceed from here North to the Serrana Bank (not an alternate Serranilla
Bank route as was incorrectly reported here last night) and the Rosalind Bank, Grand
Cayman, the Yucatan Channel, then to Cabo San Antonio, Banco Sancho Pardo, Pasa Honda, the
Florida Keys, Carysfort Reef, Charleston, Cape Hatteras, Ocean City and then finally to
the mouth of the Delaware River at Cape Henlopen, Delaware.
He is sailing with an estimated arrival time, 16 days
from now, at Cape Henlopen on Saturday, November 6th.
The Sea Victory's Captain and crew are ready and
underway. The USS New Jersey is outfitted for her voyage home, having pleased everyone in
Panama with her performance through the grand Canal.
The Commission pilots were all smiles this morning
knowing that they had done their job. The Crowley Marine Services support team, the
Battleship experts, held their heads high this morning as their treasured cargo slipped
away from Cristobal to begin her final leg home. And Sea Victory's crew talked
anxiously of family and friends at home, plans for winter, how few days remain, how nice
the feel of things. All systems secured for sailing. Everything's in order,
Captain.
And the USS New Jersey is ready, too. She's turned
the corner now, and she's on her way home.
Submitted by Bob Wernet onboard the Sea Victory.
|
