After completion of the machinery work late in the month, the steamer returned to Hampton Roads on the evening of 31 August and began cruising in Chesapeake Bay where she took the schooner "Alabama" off the mouth of the Potomac River on 14 September. Next ordered back to waters off the outer banks of North Carolina, "Albatross", except for periodic runs to Hampton Roads for fuel and provisions and a trip to Baltimore, Maryland, for repairs, operated near Beaufort, North Carolina until April 1862 when she was transferred to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron.