A navigational buoy that washed ashore at the north end of Ocean City on Sept. 9 is now parked in the small municipal lot at the foot of the Ocean City-Longport Bridge as it awaits a tow from a Coast Guard cutter.
The buoy helped mark the channel out of Great Egg Harbor Inlet less than a mile from the beach. It broke free in a northeast gale that coincided with a full-moon tide earlier this month.
The buoy was stranded on the beach on the inlet for most of September.
Maintenance of the buoy typically would fall to the Coast Guard Aids to Navigation Team in Cape May, according to Petty Officer Nick Ameen, spokesman for the local Coast Guard district. But because the buoy is so big, the team is waiting for the Coast Guard cutter Elm, a buoy tender, to assist in the job, Ameen said.
Because the inlet is so shoaled and shallow, the cutter will not be able to get close to the place where the buoy was stranded on the beach. It will be towed to a place where the cutter can access it from navigable water.
The Elm is based out of Atlantic Beach, N.C., and the work in Ocean City is not yet scheduled.
The Coast Guard is still investigating what exactly caused the buoy to break free from its mooring.
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