Wind Change Snags Cleanup : Oil Spill: After several days of mild conditions, crews are challenged by a cold front and a growing invasion of goo along the shore.

Skimming vessels bobbed along the shoreline Monday, just beyond the surf, maneuvering plastic booms to lasso ribbons of oil that were fast making their way onto Orange County beaches.

Changing weather--a westerly wind brought on by a cold front--has provided the toughest test so far for work crews that until early Monday had had almost ideal conditions to mop up after last week’s oil spill off Huntington Beach. All day Monday, work crews and skimmers were darting from one spot to another, trying to keep the oil off the beaches.

But it was almost like trying to gather up the ocean with a spoon.

“It really is up to Mother Nature as to whether she’ll keep the oil out at sea, or she drives all the oil to shore,” said Chuck Webster, crisis manager for British Petroleum, the owner of the spilled oil. “It brought a lot of oil in last night.”

Overall, officials are still pleased with cleanup efforts that, combined with evaporation and other recovery measures, have left about 110,000 gallons of crude oil still at sea.

Meanwhile, the tanker American Trader, whose damaged hull was responsible for the spill, traveled Monday night to Long Beach Harbor under its own power. The tanker, which made the 11-mile, three-hour trip without incident, anchored just inside the breakwater. It is expected to berth today, after which the 19 million gallons of crude oil still aboard will be offloaded.

The biggest challenge to the cleanup arrived before dawn on Monday, when a massive 2-inch-thick blanket of oil washed ashore on Bolsa Chica State Beach near Golden West Street, not far from sensitive wetlands.

A 200-member crew was dispatched to the area to mop up the contamination, worst since the spill began last Wednesday.

Later in the day, some of the workers were sent to the area near the Huntington Beach Pier and others to the beach at Magnolia Street. But shortly after they had left the beach at Golden West, more oil washed ashore.

Webster said the crews were being deployed to the most sensitive areas first. He said officials anticipate that the worsening weather will require more manpower, and they are considering asking the California Conservation Corps to augment the more than 450 workers now involved in the cleanup.

“There are definitely plans to increase the work force,” said Peter Bartelme, a spokesman for BP America.

He said there is no shortage of men and women who want to work on the cleanup crews, but the required safety course slows the process of getting them on the beach.

Money is not the issue, Webster said, adding that BP still has no estimate on how much the cleanup has cost, or how long it will take.

On Monday, the Huntington Beach shores appeared as if under siege, with the rat-a-tat-tat from helicopters overhead providing a backdrop as officials inspected the spill’s damage.

The beaches remained closed to the public, but bikers and joggers meandered past red Fire Department vans and trucks parked on concrete bike paths near the Huntington Beach Pier. Black and white police cars blocked parking lot entrances, and volunteers in orange caps and black shiny boots patrolled the beaches, on the look-out for dead or oil-covered birds.

At various spots of the beach, workers attired in yellow jumpers, goggles, boots and hard hats dabbed at the oil-stained sand with absorbent pompons and foam pads. Tall stacks of absorbent material were piled every few feet along the beach near the pier.

The four contractors involved in the cleanup are still hiring more workers who are earning $10 an hour to work 12-hour shifts.

Douglas Moore, a cook at a Long Beach restaurant, and his friend Steve Simley, a welder at the Long Beach shipyards, said they went to inquire about the work last weekend as soon as they heard the contractors were hiring.

By Sunday, they were enrolled in a 24-hour safety training course that the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration requires the contractors to provide for its workers.

“We were still supposed to be in class (Monday), but they said you’d better get on out there,” Moore said as he put on his hard hat, gloves and goggles. “They told us we’d be pretty busy because the oil’s getting pretty thick on the beaches now.”

An OSHA representative said the contractors are being allowed to bring in workers who have not completed the entire safety course if their work is confined to tasks that would not bring them into direct contact with the oil, such as diking waterways or hauling more absorbent material to work sites.

Jack E. Rhodes, OSHA safety supervisor, said his department has posted three two-member teams of investigators to roam the beaches.

“They go and talk with workers and give the contractor immediate feedback because we want to make sure the workers are following safety regulations,” he said.

Some of the spill specialists who have arrived here from all over the country say the cleanup effort will be easier now that the oil is washing onshore.

“As soon as the oil gets on the beaches, we can start recovering it,” said Petty Officer Greg Schultz, a member of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Pacific Strike Team, which provided technical assistance during the Valdez oil spill. “If it sits there and keeps playing around in the ocean, we get a little spot here, a little spot there, but we don’t fully recover it.”

Damage INCREASES: Winds and tides produce worst oil damage yet. A1

American Trader Spill And Anchoring 1. American Trader anchored inside the breakwater Monday evening. 2. The tanker will be moved to berth 78 today to offload remaining oil.