A specialist Trinity House vessel has been in Guernsey waters this week, helping with the work to replace the Fourquies North Cardinal Buoy.
The Buoy aids safe navigation south of Herm, said Guernsey Ports. It’s one of 60 the department maintains to help mariners navigate local waters.
There is a planned cycle of maintenance so that each of these navigational aids is refurbished every few years and this time round it was the Fourquies turn.
It is one three Cardinal Buoys, and its topmarks direct mariners to keep north, as danger lies to the south of the buoy.
The new Fourquies buoy was refurbished at St Sampson’s Harbour over the winter and this week, it was lifted into the water by the harbour cranes, and towed out to sea by the Sarnia Workboat.
It was then lifted onto the THV Galatea, a specialist buoy-handling Trinity House tender.
Galatea has a 30-tonne main crane capacity and a Dynamic Positioning System, which allowed the crew to hold the vessel in an exact position while it moved the new buoy into place.
The previous buoy was lifted out and brought ashore by the Sarnia, where it will be refurbished ahead of its next use.
Guernsey Ports Technical Services Manager Mark Rive said: “The current buoy has been removed and brought ashore, where it will be grit blasted by our team, who will then paint and reconfigure it with the light characteristics, colours and topmarks for its next location in our waters.
“This ongoing replacement programme means that each of our buoys gets refurbished regularly and we always have a spare in the workshop being prepared for its next use.”
