This yellow buoy was outside the lifeboat station last week …always a good subject for a photo I think.
I don’t know exactly why it was outside the lifeboat station, but presumably it broke away from its moorings nearby and it was towed ashore? Made from a metal base and a plastic turret (?). How is the light powered – is there a battery inside (assuming that is a light taped-up on the top). It doesn’t appear to have a solar panel for power?
I haven’t seen too many of these on the beach …in fact the last time I took a photo of one was way back in 2007.
Please do comment if you know more about buoys and this one in particular.
This is known as a Special mark (yellow with a diagonal cross), it marks dangers usually under water. It is like a miscellaneous mark that is a catch all when other marks don’t fit. They can often be temporary, for example a mark like this can mark a water skying area but be removed over winter.
This is possibly the sewer outfall buoy, though it used to be a large cone (shape). I say possibly because it is usually written down the side as an ID. Basically the sewer buoy is about 3 miles out directly opposite the sewerage treatment plant near Meols.
These buoys with similar display warnings can also be used as data buoys, they measure wind speed and wave heights etc, in this guise they would usually have obvious instruments attached. The only reason I add this, after a quick google it seems some data buoys look very similar to this without obvious instrumentation.
My money would go on the sewer buoy as I know it is just off Meols, but it is much smaller than the old buoy. Though, with the burbo windfarm out there now, it may have marked some hazard related to that.
The yellow X is a warning to vessels to stay clear, usually marking a localised submarine installation, the mark can be either on a buoy or often on a pole for inshore pipes etc.
The light will be solar, they don’t have to be very powerful as there is little light pollution at sea so even a tiny bulb will be seen from quite a distance, don’t forget these buoys are not designed to assist navigation, they merely mark a hazard. You will have heard the tales of U-boat captains targeting in on a deck crew smoking a cig from miles away, just as an example to explain the low power of lamps on inshore buoys.
As an aside the mark you posted in 2007 was a starboard channel marker, when coming into port you should keep to the starboard side of it (right hand) and port side leaving. UK buoys are always on the way in, some countries are directed to leaving so you would stay to port on the way in.
The green can you posted can also be used as a hazard mark, such as marking a wreck and gives an indication of safe water to starboard.
sorry, I’m not sure I’m explaining this very well.