After returning to the South Pacific, "North Carolina" resumed screening "Saratoga" and "Enterprise", which had also completed repairs by this time. The American fleet had been strengthened by "North Carolina"s sister ship , which served as the flagship of Rear Admiral Willis Lee. The two battleships were grouped together as TF 64 under Lee's command. The ships covered convoys carrying soldiers and supplies to the Solomon Islands for the rest of 1942 and into 1943 as the Guadalcanal campaign ground on. These operations included covering a group of seven transports carrying elements of the 25th Infantry Division to Guadalcanal from 1 to 4 January 1943. During another of these convoy operations later that month, the battleships, which by this time had been reinforced by the battleship , were too far south to be able to reach the American cruiser force during the Battle of Rennell Island at the end of the month.