Buoy 'the size of a truck' washes up on Florida beach after being lost for 2 years

NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. – A navigational marker “the size of a truck” has been drawing groups of gawkers to an otherwise quiet strip of beach the past few days.

Some were taking selfies with the stranded, red ocean beacon that towers – even as it sits cockeyed – over a 6-foot-tall person. Some were climbing “Red No. 8” for a closer inspection.

Others were just eyeing the buoy, pondering how such a large, heavy thing could find itself beached in New Smyrna, Florida, so close to a condominium community. 

“It must’ve really been rough out there to beach it that far up the beach,” Pelican Condominiums resident Mark Siktberg said Saturday.

The buoy appears to be well traveled, too, taking a two-year journey from off the South Carolina coast.

“It’s been displaced since 2017,” said Petty Officer 2nd Class Ryan Dickinson, spokesman for USCG Sector Jacksonville, which oversees the Atlantic coastline near New Smyrna Beach. “This one was from Sector Charleston. We’re going to try to get it back up there.”

Buoys are usually chained to a large block of concrete that sits at the bottom of the ocean or a lake and are navigation aids for mariners. It’s not common for one to get loose, but it’s not unheard of. The thick chains that anchor them to the concrete blocks wear over time.

The United States Coast Guard is working on a time table for removal of the buoy, an official said Monday.

Safety measures, including the removal of its light, are being put in place.

“It’s called a navigation light. The reason we removed it is because they don’t want it to be mistaken for a buoy that’s supposed to be out there,” Dickinson said.

“When they took it off, they kept it just in case it does drift out to sea. They just don’t want it to be mistaken for a navigational marker,” Dickinson said.

The Coast Guard doesn’t have the equipment needed to remove the buoy.

“The city is going to provide equipment that will help us get it onto a flatbed truck, a crane or something,” Dickinson said.