Buoys on the move

The Coast Guard has put out for public comment a proposal to remove two mid-channel buoys in the Western Way, the passage between Great Cranberry Island and Mount Desert Island. These lighted buoys have been used for many years to guide commercial craft and pleasure sailors safely to Southwest Harbor, Northeast Harbor and other points in what’s known as the Great Harbor of Mount Desert. The reason: economy.

True enough, it is expensive to maintain one of those big lighted buoys with its gong or bell. The Coast Guard’s plan for removal: Two currently unlighted buoys marking Cow Ledge and Cranberry Ledge would be lighted and moved to mid channel to take the place of the present mid-channel buoys.

Some objections have focused on the fact that some area boat regattas depend on the present buoys as racing marks. One objector complained that she would be in serious trouble if she was out in her kyack in a fog and had no gong or bell to help her find the way home. (A Coast Guardsman commented privately that the lady would be in big trouble with or without the buoys if she went kyacking in fog in that dangerous passage.) If such complaints seem trivial, consider the fact that moving the present unlighted buoys would leave Cow Ledge and Cranberry Ledge unmarked. The cost of maintaining the two buoys that would be removed should be weighed against the cost of rescuing ships and mariners running afoul of unmarked ledges.

Some people contend that buoys are less important than they were in the era before radar and other electronic shipboard aids to navigation. But the standard rule at sea is that such gear is for backup only and first reliance must be on eyes and ears.

If the Coast Guard’s plan sounds to you like poor economy and a needless risk to mariners and their boats, write the Coast Guard a letter about it. Officials say nothing will be done before September. The officer in charge of the project is Lt. (jg) Matthew Rudick, at First Coast Guard District (OAN)l, 408 Atlantic Avenue, Boston, MA 02110-3350.