 Following a seven-week repair period, "Weehawken" exited the shipyard on St. Patrick's Day 1943 and moored at the Naval Operating Base for almost a week before returning to Yorktown, Virginia, on 23 March to load mines.For the next 11 weeks, "Weehawken" conducted minelaying drills and gunnery exercises in the lower reaches of the Chesapeake Bay.Throughout that span of time, she returned to Yorktown and Norfolk frequently for liberty, provisions, repairs, and the like.