11-day stay. On 13 and 14 February, the fast transport retraced her steps of two weeks before. On 13 February, she embarked troops at Guadalcanal and steamed northwest up the Slot. The following day, she stopped at Vella Lavella and took on additional troops, mostly members of the 207th Battalion, 3rd New Zealand Division, before continuing on to the Green Islands for the actual occupation. At 0625 on 15 February, the task force arrived off Nissan and began landing the occupation force. The minuscule enemy garrison did not oppose the landing and Waters completed her part of the mission and cleared the area by 0846. She returned to Florida Island on 16 February. Between 18 and 21 February, the warship made another round-trip voyage to the Green Islands to ferry a mixed bag of Navy, Army, and New Zealand forces before reentering Purvis Bay for the remainder of the month. During the first half of March, she made two more voyages to the Green Islands—via Bougainville—before returning to Purvis Bay on 16 March to prepare for the occupation of Emirau Island. At 0630 on 17 March, she shifted from Florida Island to Guadalcanal, where she embarked units of the newly reconstituted 4th Marines. At 1800, she passed through Indispensable Strait with the Emirau invasion force and laid in a course to the northwest of the Solomons and New Ireland. At 0615, she arrived in the St. Matthias Islands and began disembarking troops for the invasion of Emirau, the southernmost island of the group. Once again, Waters' troops made their landing unopposed. The fast transport completed unloading by 1030 and took up station to patrol the transport area against enemy submarines. Finally, at 1930 that evening, she formed up with the other ships of the force and headed back to the southern Solomons. On the evening of 22 March, the force retransited Indispensable Strait and, the next morning, broke up off Savo Island to return to their various anchorages. Waters reentered Purvis Bay at 1130 and let go her anchor. The fast transport remained in Purvis Bay for the remainder of March and the first week in April. On 8 April, she stood out of the anchorage, picked up passengers at Guadalcanal, and took departure for Pearl Harbor in company with . She made a brief stop at Funafuti, in the Ellice Islands, on 11 April and moored at the DE