The Bay’s waters are warming into the 60s, and we’re all eager to get out on the Chesapeake, whether for boating, sailing, fishing, paddling or other adventures. We know that many people use CBIBS data to help plan a safe day on the Bay. Our team is working to repair the buoys that are not fully functioning. Here’s the situation as of mid-May:
- At the Point Lookout buoy (mouth of the Potomac River), the batteries have died. Our team plans to replace the the buoy, likely the first week of June.
- The buoys at Stingray Point and York Spit are not functioning at all. York Spit was an old-style buoy and will need to be completely replaced. The Stingray Point buoy was pulled earlier this year after a likely ship strike. We are awaiting needed parts to be able to assemble these two new buoys. When they are completed, they first will need to be tested on shore. Then we will work with partners in Virginia to get them back out in the water. The current plan is to redeploy these buoys—weather permitting—the week of May 24. [UPDATE As of May 27, York Spit is once again reporting, and we expect Stingray Point back online in the next day or so, too.]
- At the Annapolis and Gooses Reef buoys, wind direction is once again being reported. We were getting erroneous wind readings and determined that it was an interaction between the new models of anemometer and onboard computer at those buoys. Our team wrote new software that was uploaded to the buoys to fix this issue (same issue at both buoys).