Coast Guard Plans to Remove ATONS (buoys, etc.)

[wings&wheels]

I just read about the Coast Guard's baffling plan to drastically reduce physical ATON's (Buoys, etc.), and I expect many of the boaters here would be interested in the plan as well as opportunities and avenues to provide comment...or objections. I will be.

The USCG has given notice of their plan to reduce costs by eliminating many buoys and other aids to navigation in the Northeast region with other geos to follow. Included in the plan is 11 ATONS in the Woods Hole area, a particularly treacherous, rocky and busy section of intersecting waterways. While in most cases the removals may not impact large commercial boats or smaller boats with navigational equipment, they do serve as a backup should ones nav equipment fail, and physical ATONs are a primary aid to many recreational boaters. That said, locally the removal of the Woods Hole markers is just risky, reckless and simply a bad decision, like an "are you kidding?" type of decision.

This link shows the planned action as well as instructions for submitting comments; https://uscg-marker-removals.webflow.io

Hope this isn't considered "political" and to head off any potential politicization of this discussion, this action was planned well before the recent elections.

 

[Danno]

Could the analogy be the movement from paper folding maps of the 80s to cell phone / on boat nav systems used currently?
No one keeps a back-up paper fold out map that I know of, when driving.

 

[Passport1]

As a former east coast ATON (aid to nav) CG sailor, served on two buoy tenders, I'm not sure how to feel about this. My tenders operated from Chesapeake Bay, Va. south to Florida except for one winter when we went north to break ice around Long Island. GPS has made most aids irrelevant but for vessels with bigger drafts. Charts are still necessary to avoid grounding. We set buoys with LORAN plots and many might have been off station when they hit the water. Boaters survived.

Personal anecdote; buoys up close (on deck) are much larger than most imagine and fetid with marine growth. In the water they are a haven for fishermen who want to moor to them (very illegal) and covetous sea birds that defend them vigorously against anybody (a sailor like me) doing routine maintenace (measuring battery voltage and changing light bulbs) while in the water and on station.

Semper Paratus!

Fox News

 

[wings&wheels]

Could the analogy be the movement from paper folding maps of the 80s to cell phone / on boat nav systems used currently?
No one keeps a back-up paper fold out map that I know of, when driving.

Partially, however there are still many boaters out there without gps, chart plotters, etc. Also, some of the planned removals appear to be at isolated shoals and rocks, and while these are all visible on your plotter I believe that physical markers still have a place here. I also believe that the markers may encourage keeping your head out of the boat as opposed to staring at your plotter.

 

[alarmguy]

Wow, how sad. I no longer live in NY and I know technology has come a long way in the last 20 to 50 years.
Spent my whole life on the water from the Great South Bay into the ocean either through Fire Island Inlet but mostly Jones Inlet. Starting around age 18 in 1975/76 ish many years, decades fishing outside of Jones Inlet which is what we passed through from our marina many times right past the NY Harbor area and off the Jersey Highlands. Other times off the Cholera Banks straight out of Jones Inlet. Using the compass sooner or later we would get there dead on. (I forgot the heading )

I used to be kind of proud, along with friends and siblings that the only navigational devices we used were charts and a compass, along with the Jones Inlet Buoy, Ambrose Channel Buoy A (actually at the time it was the Ambrose Light Tower until they sunk it a decade ago I think.
Times have changed. But it was such a free feeling being out there. Even that Jones Buoy seems close but in reality coming in, on a fogged out day it was useful (or reassuring) as you still could not see land at that point. There is a second buoy right up close near the jetty, at the time a Bell Buoy looks like it is still there. We named it "George" It was the only bell buoy I knew.
True, in todays world GPS rules I guess, our new small boat here in the south we dont venture off shore much, though I plan to on ultra calm days... will rely on my phone app and see how it goes.

Such great memories ...

 

[JimPghPA]

Are GPS systems no longer shutdown somedays for maintance and calibration?

I rember years ago they were. Once I notified a friend who flew a small aircraft that the GPS was scheduled to have an outage day, and be sure to bring maps and plan for it to not be available on a flight he was doing the next day.

Are the satalites now numerous enough that a total shutdown no longer ever happens?

 

[alarmguy]

Could the analogy be the movement from paper folding maps of the 80s to cell phone / on boat nav systems used currently?
No one keeps a back-up paper fold out map that I know of, when driving.

Maybe, yeah but you're alone in the Ocean not on a road, you cant see land, a road still has markers, signs and a pathway. It's really creepy but you know to rely on your compass, once out there, your mind can tell you one direction and the compass says the other. You always trust the compass. Also at times, you feel like you are traveling forever and still do not see land, you trust your compass and also make sure you note your travel time out there and speed to compare the return trip as reassurance.

In the ocean you cant see land, there is no road, no path, a break down in your GPS could happen. You cant stop and ask someone nor can you follow a path back to port that the GPS would have provided.

IN the above case the buoy is that path and using the compass to find that buoy will enable you to find your port.
There is no way to know exactly where you are as you get closer to land and find that buoy. A chart with the depth will help of course. But its guess work. Yes, agree. I think phone apps can also be used. I dont have experience with them. I did download one last year in our new location.

I get it, bottom line is you dont go out into the ocean anymore without a GPS unit would be the rule. Maybe it's time has come but I dont know. Unlike a road for some people it makes like even more pleasurable having markers

 

[rijndael]

Are GPS systems no longer shutdown somedays for maintance and calibration?

Regardless of planned outages, GPS systems are a target in war time.

 

[alarmguy]

Are GPS systems no longer shutdown somedays for maintance and calibration?

I rember years ago they were. Once I notified a friend who flew a small aircraft that the GPS was scheduled to have an outage day, and be sure to bring maps and plan for it to not be available on a flight he was doing the next day.

Are the satalites now numerous enough that a total shutdown no longer ever happens?

I dont think any GPS is ever shut down or out of order. I do wonder if you mean radio beacons which used to be used before other devices became the standard.

 

[JimPghPA]

I dont think any GPS is ever shut down or out of order. I do wonder if you mean radio beacons which used to be used before other devices became the standard.

Nope, it was GPS.

Maybe back then, the number of satalites was just enough, but required shutdown for some things.

Being war targets as mentioned was also on my mind.

 

[Donald]

How will they make the movies were the surviving girl is found hanging onto a buoy?

No need to memorize "right red return"?