By why hurry I mean, why rush to cross the Pacific ocean only to have to wait at anchor for a dock to become available in Los Angeles harbor?

There's an old law, been on the books since the 19th century, that requires ships traveling between US ports to be US registered and be crewed by mostly US citizens. This causes a problem in the modern day because...imagine you've got one of those gigantic containerships leaving Asia for the US, the ship is owned by who gives a shit and the crew was chosen practically at random from citizens of the world. In a sane world, you could plan the trip to visit several ports along the US coast, dropping off cargo from Asia at each where it's most convenient, and loading cargo that's going to your next port of call. Well unless the ship is American, this is illegal, which makes the United States a complete fucking problem, which is why tthere are just...containerships hanging around outside US ports waiting to offload ALL of their cargo whether it makes sense or not, taking on whatever's at this particular port, and then leaving the Western hemisphere again.