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Photo Pat Hopkins, courtesy U.S. Coast Guard
Petty Officers Jason Knapp of Harrisburg, Pa., and Greg Shriver of Norwalk, Conn., prepare to take the Narragansett/Buzzards Bay Buoy "A" aboard for repairs. The recent nor'easter tore the buoy’s lantern, top mark and solar panels off the top of the buoy. |
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Coast Guard chases down missing buoys
Banner Daily Update posted Sunday, April 29.
By Kaimi Rose Lum
Banner Staff
The U.S. Coast Guard continued to track down and repair buoys that escaped their moorings during the spring nor’easter of April 15-19. Gale-force winds and frothing seas managed to dislodge or disable as many as 67 buoys, and mariners are urged to report any other lost or damaged aids to navigation that they may have noticed, Coast Guard Petty Officer Etta Smith said Friday.
The buoy tender Juniper and two Coast Guard cutters, along with nine aids-to-navigation teams from Maine to New York, have been working all week to fix the buoys.
“There were a lot of different scenarios,” said Smith. “Some had ripped loose from their anchors and washed up on shore. Some moved off station,” meaning they drifted away from where they were supposed to be. The Boston approach “BA” buoy had blown 87 miles off station by the time it was recovered by the Juniper. Some of the solar panels that power the floating navigation aids were smashed to bits in the gnashing seas.
Around Provincetown, the two buoys boaters depend upon — the Long Point and Wood End buoys — were unaffected, a spokesperson with Coast Guard Station Provincetown reported. The Peaked Hill and Race Point buoys are no longer an issue because they were “disestablished” last summer after a waterways analysis by the government determined they were no longer needed.
The main areas of concern appear to be the shipping channels in and out of Boston and Portland, Maine. In the aftermath of the storm, mariners were urged to use extreme caution while underway and the Coast Guard continued to broadcast warnings this week to mariners in waters that could be missing their buoys.
Mariners are asked to call (617) 223-8555 if they should notice a buoy with a “discrepancy.”
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Apr 26th, 2007