She floats!

Tugboats push USS Nimitz from the dry dock to the pier.  U.S. Navy photo by MCSA Derek Volland.

I just watched a massive cavern fill with water, and now a massive aircraft carrier is floating away on that water.

That may not be the exact technical terminology, but it's all I could think when the dry dock flooded and Nimitz was maneuvered, pushed, and pulled over to the pier where we first arrived.  Yep, it's been almost a year already.

This was an all-day event for the MCs.  We deployed photo and video teams on docks, piers, barges, tugboats, stairways, and rooftops.  I arrived at my shooting location, smack dab in front of USS Nimitz at about 1000. 

Then I sat there for two hours when the flooding was delayed.

At roughly 1600 the ship was floating and free, being moved up the street to Pier Delta.  I had thrown a wireless microphone on one of the Nimitz line handlers and followed the action as he and others helped to steer the carrier out of the dry dock.

Keep an eye out for the footage in an upcoming Dry Dock episode!

USS Nimitz concludes shifting piers from Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility’s Dry Dock 6 to Naval Base Kitsap-Bremerton.   U.S. Navy photo by MC3 Nichelle N. Whitfield.

I'm going to try and get some stuff up showing MCs at work.  I know many of you enjoy learning about what our jobs entail.  It'll be a bit easier, now that I can have my camera phone at work.