PEARL HARBOR — Blond-haired Michael Hubble, 7, just couldn't wait any longer for his dad, Chief Mark Hubble, to disembark from the Virginia-class submarine USS Texas when it arrived yesterday at its new home port.

"Daddy! Daddy! Hi, Daddy!" the youngster shouted in practically a chant to his father, who was on deck as the 377-foot nuclear submarine was nudged up to pier Yankee 3 just after 3 p.m. yesterday.

"It's nice (that he's here)," Michael Hubble said. "He was out at sea for a very long time."

Families couldn't contain their excitement as the crew of more than 130 finally arrived after the submarine left the East Coast on Sept. 30 en route to Hawai'i.

Many of those families had moved from Connecticut to Hawai'i over the summer, meaning the separation was even longer.

For the Navy, the arrival of the second Virginia-class submarine in the Pacific signifies another step toward a 60-40 split of attack submarines in the Pacific versus the Atlantic.

The USS Hawai'i, which arrived at Pearl Harbor in July, was the first of at least four of the more than $2 billion submarines expected to be based at Pearl Harbor in the near future.

Recognizing the importance of the Asia-Pacific region and the increased threat from foreign-nation subs in the Pacific, the Pentagon in 2006 mandated that 60 percent of the Navy's submarines be home-ported in the Pacific by the end of 2010.

With the Texas' arrival, 31 of the Navy's 53 fast-attack submarines are now based in the Pacific, with 18 of those at Pearl Harbor.

Texas skipper Cmdr. Robert Roncska yesterday said his 7,800-ton submarine headed to the North Pole via the East Coast in what was the first test of the relatively-new Virginia-class in the frigid waters there.

"It's an engineering marvel," Roncska said. "The ship performed extremely well."

Instead of traversing the North Pole region to the Pacific and Hawai'i, the Texas sailed back along the East Coast and through the Panama Canal, Roncska said.

"The ice thickness on the West Coast when we were coming through the other end was growing more than what was expected," Roncska said. "So we stopped and we turned around at the North Pole and we came back around (via the East Coast)."

The Texas surfaced near the North Pole and remained moored to the ice for more than 24 hours. The crew played touch football in 0-degree weather with a minus-20 wind chill.

While there, Roncska had a phone conversation with the sub's "sponsor," former first lady Laura Bush.