Just before the New Year, 21-foot-tall, 8-foot-wide Coast Guard red navigation buoy #8 washed up out of the fog in New Smyrna Beach, Fla. — its light still blinking — nearly 200 miles away from its mooring at the entrance to Port Royal Sound north of Hilton Head Island.
It was originally reported to be a buoy that disappeared in 2017 following Hurricane Irma. When that buoy disappeared, it was replaced by a new buoy, which the Coast Guard checked on after Hurricane Dorian blew through. As of last September, the buoy was still there. Sometime in the intervening months, the buoy apparently broke free and no one noticed.
The wayward buoy very briefly became a tourist attraction on New Smyrna Beach before it was hauled off the beach on January 2 to be returned to the Charleston station to be repositioned off Hilton Head.
Almost seems like maybe it wasnt needed as a marker. If no one noticed it missing.
Now this will become a local holiday by the looks of it.
People with nothing better to do.