A wave-data buoy that broke its moorings this spring and washed up on the Cook Inlet beach west of Homer is back in the water after repairs.
There are many agencies that operate buoys in Alaska waters. This buoy is owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as part of the Coastal Data Information Program (CDIP). It came loose during high spring tides and storm surge. Once it was recovered, it needed to be sent to the Lower 48 for repair.
The yellow-painted wave buoy is a 3 foot diameter sphere with an attached whip antenna and a night time yellow color warning flashing light. The light timing sequence is a series of 5 flashes at 1-second intervals with a period of 20 seconds between each series. Visual range is one kilometer.
On Thursday, the repaired data buoy was anchored in about 112 feet of water, approximately nine nautical miles west-southwest of Homer.
The Alaska Ocean Observing System is asking boaters to stay clear of the buoy, as it has a wide watch circle, depending on the tide.
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Access to the data can be had at the following links.
AOOS Link: https://portal.aoos.org/#metadata/52551/station
CDIP Link http://cdip.ucsd.edu/m/products/?stn=204p1
NDBC Link https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php/?station=46108
