Breathing Buoy ?

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john0740

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I was watching the video linked from this post and heard the bell on Manacle cardinal.

For a couple of seasons over 15 years ago I was based on the Orwell and would sail across the Thames estuary to Ramsgate. This was in the days when there were no wind farms. I recall that somewhere towards the north Kent coast was a buoy that made a wheezing sound, as sort of low pitched breathy wheezing. It was quite eerie in some ways.

Does anyone remember this one, and is it still there?
 
Some buoys had whistles but I can't offhand remember which one(s). In olden days we would go to Ramsgate from the Blackwater via the Edinburgh Channel and I remember the odd whistling buoy. I might dig out our old charts and look.
 
The one that's etched on my mind near Land's End is the Runnelstone... We had family friends who farmed the land just opposite, and particularly when visiting in the winter, it would be moaning all day and night... I can never her a whistle buoy without recalling that plaintive note!
 
john0740 said:
I was watching the video linked from this post and heard the bell on Manacle cardinal.

For a couple of seasons over 15 years ago I was based on the Orwell and would sail across the Thames estuary to Ramsgate. This was in the days when there were no wind farms. I recall that somewhere towards the north Kent coast was a buoy that made a wheezing sound, as sort of low pitched breathy wheezing. It was quite eerie in some ways.

Does anyone remember this one, and is it still there?
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Yes, I remember it, somewhere between Fisherman’s Gat and North Foreland? It was indeed a mournful sound.

edit, was it Outer Tongue or similar?
 
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I've found a passage plan from 14th August 2005, SYH to Ramsgate. I'd have used Fisherman's Gatt or Foulger's Gatt
The waypoints I have listed are ...
Outer Fisherman East Cardinal
Outer Tongue (safe water mark)
NE Spit
Elbow North Cardinal
In practice, I would use these as rough targets and not sail from one to the other.

Possibilities from the chart include East Tongue Sand Tower or East Margate, but I doubt I'd have wanted to be that far west, so I think that Outer Tongue could be the one.

Edit: It's not on my current chart though (expected to find it at 51° 30.7 ́ N, 1° 26.5 ́ E) and it is listed as having a whistle
 
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I can certainlynremember hearing a moaning buoy in the Thames Esturary, but cannot remember which one. We regularly sailed from the Medway and going east for the Continent. I think it was when we still had black starboard buoys and red port buoys. if you can remember them.
 
Togue Sand when a lightship had a Fog Diaphone but that is back in the 1950's. Before that there was a reed on the Tongue Sand Tower. The Outer Tongue in 2003 had a Whis. I think it must have been that. Still there in 2006 but by 2009 the Outer Tongue had been deleted.
 
Moaning - or groaning:

'... and the heaving groaner
Rounded homewards, and the seagull:
And under the oppression of the silent fog
The tolling bell ...'
 
LONG_KEELER said:
A bit off topic but who doesn't love the sound of the Spitway Bell.

John Muir – Listening for the Spitway Bell Buoy in fog
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Which has reminded me before sat nav(!) and lit buoys (!), Phil and I were bringing TG back into the Blackwater (oh and before a Volvo engine) in the pitch black moonless night. The Decca proximity alarm went off saying we were with 0.5nm of the Bench Head (when they were a BIG buoy) .... and it had no light. I stood at the bow looking for the buoy... never saw it. And then avoding the first anchored ship was tricky as well. I wonder if I still have the Decca in the shed. Oh the memories.... Nuffin else to do here today except memories.
 
pvb said:
Your post triggered a far-off recollection of being lost in the North Sea, and using a Seafix handheld radio direction finder - what a vague process that was!
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Gosh, yes the RDF. I had a Locata. the only things I ever found was the Sunk Beacon and Sarthend Airport. My first flight was from Sarthend - a hut then. A Douglas Dakota that needed to refuel at Lyon and romtly broke down - a magneto went down. Oh the joy, oh the nostagia!

I reckon North Foreland had a Diaphone once. In 1943 it had a Fog designation. Not in 1950. Oh hang, on there was 'Fog dia ev. 30s' on the KentishKnock light ship in 1950. At the Shivering Sand Tower is says 'Fog Reed and GpFl(2) ev 15 aec (unreliable)'. And that is printed! The buoyage was great: 'BWVS', or 'RWHS' or 'RY Ch' etc. Oh and there is a Diaphone on the N. Goodwin, '3 blasts ev. min'
 
I remember a programme that included a lighthouse (Lizard?) that had a pair of Diaphones and a quite vast amount of kit to create the air. On a lightship I wonder if the crew could generate and store compressed air. Must have. Many of the Lightship sites coincide with tide diamonds so I guess the crew had the task of monitoring and plotting the tide. Summat to do in their 'lockdown'!
 
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