A cardinal buoy from Ramsgate harbour has washed up at Dumpton Gap beach.
The 6 metre high marker is a West Cardinal buoy called the West Quern as it marks the western edge of the Quern bank.
It’s usually moored south of Ramsgate harbour. It’s not from the Ramsgate Channel, but can be used if approaching from the south. It is used to indicate the direction from the buoy in which the deepest navigable water lies.
Crafts approaching Ramsgate have to deal with the dredged shipping channel that leads into the outer harbour.
This is marked with green conical starboard hand buoys, red can port hand buoys as well as the cardinal marks.
A cardinal mark is a sea mark (a buoy or other floating or fixed structure) used in maritime pilotage to indicate the position of a hazard and the direction of safe water.
Ramsgate Port Control is aware.
they had better get that moved quickly , before someone nicks it or covers it in graffiti ?
I thought it was the last art installation
I will pay £1000 reward for the capture and prosecution of persons causing vandalism and graffiti around our towns.
Ian Driver is your guilty party.
Can I have my £1000 please?
Very dangerous to shipping it needs to be put back soon. The anchor chains must have rusted through.
As someone has said on the Facebook article, why not get it a fresh bright coat of paint and clean up whilst the opportunity has arisen
Health and safety would put a stop to that, along with environmental concerns about paint flakes from cleaning and drips when repainted. The days of common sense are long gone.
Navigation buoys are maintained by Trinity House (based in Harwich). They have a number of ships which sail round the coast of Great Britain carrying out repairs and maintenance to these navigation aids.
During storms (such as we had a few days ago) it is not uncommon for buoys to to dragged away from their intended positions, or occasionally break free.
Thankfully, common sense is manifest through the Health and Safety regulations. Things like wearing eye protection when using grinding (or jet washing) equipment, or masks when dangerous fumes are involved.
Lack of maintenance again for the securing to come detached.
Presumably all the other buoys off Thanet’s coast were maintained correctly, and Trinity House, having nothing better to do, said “Let’s have a larf. Let’s not maintain the West Quern buoy, so that it’ll break free in a storm and give the knuckle dragging locals something to mapn about!”
What do you think?
Encyclopedia Andrew has stated the blindingly obvious “facts” again. Who needs google when we have our own Andrew.
You never did update everyone on how your ‘cage rattling’ with the civil servants in London went Ann…….
Who needs a village idiot when we have our own Ann!
If they’re blindingly obvious, then they’re facts, not “facts”
I would have thought that to be blindingly obvious.
Might I say that I’s a great honour to be mentioned personally by Ann. Revolving in such exalted circles as she does, rubbing shoulders with politicians, senior civil servants, QCs and briefs, I’m in good company.