SITKA, ALASKA
This is an ironic turn of events for the popular 6-meter buoy. In December 2008 it broke free of its moorings and went on a weeks-long sojourn across the Gulf of Alaska, finally coming ashore near Cape Suckling the following February, some 350 miles from its original position. The buoy faithfully transmitted data the entire time.
The buoy monitors air and sea temperatures, wind speed, wave height and barometric pressure – all critical to the National Weather Service’s forecasting work, not to mention valuable information for mariners.
The Edgecumbe buoy was repositioned by the NDBC and the Coast Guard just last summer. The news release does not give a time frame for repairs to the buoy, which is located twenty miles offshore.
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