BREMERTON – Before sailing one of the world’s largest warships out of the waters of Puget Sound, Capt. Teague Suarez likes to take a quick walk on land.

The leader of the team of navigators that guides the USS Nimitz, Suarez walks the pier beside the ship, aft to forward, bow to stern. It visualizes to his team and reinforces to the “Gator,” as he’s called, that its size must never be taken for granted.

Especially for those first few nautical miles.

Most boats can sail easily through the channel between Bainbridge Island and Port Orchard. But they’re not topped with a flight deck that bulges 252 feet wide. The Nimitz must navigate an obstacle course called Rich Passage, keeping clear of fish pens, cargo ships and rocks in the channel.

“It’s never easy,” said Suarez, a helicopter pilot who’s served 21 years in the Navy. “I think it’s the most difficult Navy port there is (to get to and from in the U.S.).”

On Jan. 11, Nimitz left its homeport at Bremerton, shoving off around 4 p.m., and returned to sea to continue a stringent training regimen following its time in dry dock at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. The crew — under Capt. Max Clark, Nimitz commanding officer — once again delicately piloted the nearly 1,100-foot-long carrier steadily through the narrow passage. Droves of sailors played a role, helping run radar, spotting ferries and pleasure craft, and helming the ship as it headed out of Sinclair Inlet. Two professional boat pilots even come aboard to help each time, hopping off onto an accompanying tug once the vessel’s out of the passage.

Even at high tide, Nimitz’s 37-foot draft comes within feet of the bottom at the skinniest part of the passage, near Bainbridge’s Lynwood Center. All the while, it must make a hairpin turn.

Lt. Katie Medford-Davis, the Nimitz’s assistant navigator, called out each new set of coordinates as the blue lights of Navy patrol boats paralleled the ship. The Nimitz’s rudder rarely turns as steeply as it does through the passage. She can think of no bigger corner for a Navy ship in the continental United States.

“You’re almost flipping a 180,” she said. “It’s taking a large ship and flipping a U-turn, in a very narrow stretch of water.”

Navigational aids, from the centuries-old sextant to modern GPS, are used. A hierarchy of sailors, from the captain down to the 20-year-old helmsman who actually has the ship’s wheel, ensures deep redundancy — should anything go wrong, there are many layers of backup.

Ambrose Wyckoff, the navy yard’s first commander in 1891 who spent his early Navy career charting Puget Sound's waters, saw many strengths in the region: plenty of freshwater, timber and a naturally deep-water port. Yet Wyckoff could’ve never envisioned a 100,000-ton aircraft carrier that would come in later generations.

The first time the USS Nimitz ever sailed into Rich Passage was on July 2, 1987 — at the time, just 12 years into its record-long career. The Bremerton Sun created the thickest newspaper it ever had printed to that point in anticipation. A copy was made for every sailor aboard to help them acclimate to Kitsap County.

RELATED: Nimitz letter, a beloved family memento, now a part of carrier' s archive

In the time since, Nimitz has come and gone more than just about any other carrier, trading homeports with Everett. In 2015, the ship, named for the legendary fleet admiral who helped the U.S. defeat the Japanese Navy in World War II, was once again centered in Bremerton in part to reduce stress on its sailors, which frequently have to come here with the 45-year-old ship for maintenance.

Whether from Everett or Bremerton, the ship’s crew faces a navigational challenge in getting out of central Puget Sound. Following the gleaming lights of Seattle, the crew encounters what’s known as the “Mixing Bowl,” a confluence of currents that whips around an aircraft carrier as much as 10 degrees off-kilter between Whidbey Island and Port Townsend. They have the power to swing the carrier out of control, and navigators must stay vigilant in keeping the steel ship — and the roughly 3,000 sailors aboard — on a straight course.

It’s after 1 a.m. when Suarez, Medford-Davis and the navigation team reach the Pacific Ocean. Only then are they relieved by another team of navigators, helmsmen and bridge crew that can carry the carrier through its next leg. But a storm is just reaching the Pacific Northwest coast and even for the biggest warship ever built, it will be a rough night on the high seas.

Nimitz at Sea series

Reporter Josh Farley journeyed to the Pacific Ocean with the crew of the USS Nimitz in January for this series of stories. This is Part 1 of “Nimitz at Sea.”

Read part 2: "Getting a new crew of sailors deployment ready"

Read part 3: "Crew of carrier ready to meet era's new threats"

Read part 4: " Feeding 'a family of 5,000’ on a floating city"

Watch the Beat Blast video of Josh Farley's experiences aboard the USS Nimitz here.

We'd love to hear from you about this series. Email josh.farley@kitsapsun.com.