1st Tanker Visits Hookup Since Spill : Oil: No incidents are reported as Coast Guard monitors the unloading of crude off the Huntington Beach Pier, where two months ago nearly 400,000 gallons were spewed.

An oil tanker began unloading its cargo 1.3 miles offshore Saturday in the first such attempt since a similar-size tanker spewed nearly 400,000 gallons of oil into the sea two months ago, a Coast Guard official said.

“They got through the roughest part, which is lowering the anchor,” Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Michael Condra said. “There wasn’t any problem.”

The oil hookup, at an offshore terminal southwest of the Huntington Beach Pier, has been unused since the spill. The Coast Guard has been conducting surveys to determine the depths around the terminal and its approaches, Condra said.

The Coast Guard found that the shallowest water is 47 feet deep, Condra said.

That means the tanker, the Aspen, cleared the bottom by at least six feet, he said.

“That’s a real good clearance,” Condra said. “There’s plenty of room under there.”

In early February, the hull of the tanker American Trader was ruptured while it was mooring and dumped 394,000 gallons of crude oil into the ocean.

Navigational charts had indicated that the sandy ocean floor lay about 52 feet beneath the water’s surface. But subsequent investigation revealed that the water is significantly shallower.

The Aspen was carrying 345,646 barrels of oil when it moored. Condra said the Coast Guard expected that it would take about 26 hours, or until sometime this afternoon, to unload the oil.

“The Coast Guard has been on top of it,” Condra said. “We’re monitoring the offloading from hookup to the escort.”