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.
