Hi there,
I live on the island of Anguilla, BWI and was hoping someone here may be able to help us.
A navigational buoy washed ashore on a far eastern beach here on the island and we were curious to see if we could find it’s origin. It is conical in shape, top and bottom, approx 8 ft in length (about 4 ft above water), red with white 4A marking, no light, and has a welded registration(?) marking of 3NR-88-30LZ.
We’ve been trying to search for any sort of database, but can’t seem to find anything online.
Thanks so much and Happy New Year!
A photo or two might help.
It’s marked according to a USCG marking scheme, ‘3NR-88-30LZ’ is the serial# which corresponds to Class 3 nun buoy with radar reflector, made in 1988, manufacturer code 30LZ. Is there no corresponding ‘USCG’ weld bead on the buoy anywhere?
Ref:
With the info you have ‘Red Nun buoy marked 4A, unlighted’, you could simply search through the various light lists online, for all ‘4A’ buoys, that are unlit. You will find multiple as I have. South Carolina, Florida, up the north coast… I took a serious look in Volume III Atlantic Coast since that would cover the region nearby, nothing stood out… It won’t tell you which is yours. Also, it may be a private aid–if there is no USCG mark, maybe it is, and just retained the common style of serializing - a manufacturer probably would keep the same scheme regardless of client.
A fiercely dedicated researching of all the notice to mariners between 1988 and recent would possibly find one - I noted a missing re nun 4A from Woods Hole, but since that was this year, it seems difficult to believe it floated away in that direction that soon. It won’t list by serial number.
You should be able to get more info from filing a ATON discrepancy with USCG, or at least that is the neighborly thing to do since you’re not really trying to keep it a secret.
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Thanks so much! Great info! Periodically the Saragasso circulation seems to shift south and we get a lot of Saragassum and more than the usual amount of flotsum washing ashore on the east facing beaches. I thought for sure this had made it from across the Atlantic, but looks more like it might have broken loose on this side and rotated out in the Saragasso. Would that make sense?
Also forgot to add, we’ll file a report from the link provided.
I’ll be down on that end of the island again later this week. Is there a specific spot on the buoy we should look for further identifying USCG?
The most important thing is to keep it from going adrift again where a boat might hit it in the night. Although they’ll be glad to hear about it, the USCG is extremely unlikely to go to Anguilla to try to recover a 30 year old bouy.
Yeah, I figured they porbably wouldn’t come to get it. More of a curiousity thing, really, hoping to find out where it came from.