Gulf Buoy Epilogue

Last week, Captain Steve from Panama City, FL was going through the photos on his iPhone 5s. Buried deep in the memory of that phone were a few photos from Sunday July 9th 2017. Captain Steve and a friend, recently back from Afghanistan, were 50 NM out in the Gulf of Mexico. Fishing may have been mediocre that day, so they spent time eyeing various flotsam and jetsam spread across sea. A submerged road barrel, a 50 gallon plastic container, and a balloon with a note to "Paw Paw".

Something about the next object must have caught their eye. They made one pass, then came back around and, with their net, scooped up the funny looking object. It was a buoy and it must not have been out very long by how clean it looked.

Reading the label, Capt Steve realized this was some sort of scientific instrument and the "Do Not Remove from Water" was pretty emphatic. He took a photo, dropped it in the water, took another photo as it floated away, and forgot about it--for seven months.

When the email arrived last Friday with the title "Found Buoy", I hurriedly opened it. I saw the date 9 July and quick realized that it wasn't the Pacific Buoy, lost off Baja Mexico in Oct '16, nor the Hawaii Buoy that fell silent last Sept. It was the Gulf Buoy that had survived coming ashore once near Pensacola in its first ill-fated deployment, then had survived the journey around Florida, through Hurricane Irma, to finally come ashore near Cape Lookout, NC. I'd always thought that Billy from Greensboro was the first person to touch the Gulf Buoy after it was deployed, but right there in the email were pictures showing me that it wasn't true. In an amazing twist, the Gulf Buoy had been visited by a few fellow travellers who said "Hello" and set the buoy on its way again.

If you've followed the Drifting Buoy Project, you'll know the buoys provide data on water temp, pitch, acceleration, and other variables. Was it possible that the buoy told us about its visit with the two strangers that Sunday in July? I went back and found the data for that week. There at 2 pm local on the 9th, an anomaly in the pitch and acceleration values. So clear now, but then it must have looked like a rogue wave (whatever that is), or maybe we thought the buoy just ran into some debris.

I'm not sure why Captain Steve decided to email me last Friday. He must have wondered what happened to that buoy. I doubt he thought that it would have ended up on the other side of Florida, after travelling over 2000 NM for 100 days. For whatever reason, he sent the email and we know the real story of the Gulf Buoy (or is there more?). Thanks Captain Steve!