Unidentified Floating Object - any ideas?

[Naughty Cat]

Approx Lat Long 44, 8.23. Approx current 3 knots as indicated by the angle and wake. My recollection was that we still had more than 200m depth under the boat. Not too far from Albenga where there is a terrestrial Meteo Italia wind station. No visible lights. Did not approach as under sail and had somewhere to be. Also, if it was aliens, we've seen the movies and nothing good happens from opening those capsules...

[blueazimuth]

It's a Special Purpose bouy all of which, by international agreement, are painted yellow. If it has a light it will be yellow with any characteristics which do not conflict with white navigation lights. They can also be of any shape which do not conflit with navigation bouys - Refer to Chart #1

The instruments on the top suggest that it is recording weather and/or sub-surface data.

It should be shown on your chart, but that will depend on when it was put there, and/or whether your chart is fully up to date.

[Steadman Uhlich]

When I was in St. John's Newfoundland a few months ago, I met a sailor who had just sailed to Newfoundland from New England on his own boat with his daughter, wife, and another. He told us he had literally run into a bouy like this ("T-boned it") a few miles offshore on his approach to Newfoundland. He was not watching forward at the time, obviously. He told us his boat hit with a loud bang and jolt.

Later, I was on a boat that sailed past the same buoy, which was bright yellow and similar to what is shown here.

I am posting this comment simply to state my belief that it is always a good idea to have enough crew on passages to have a crew person on deck, watching forward and scanning the horizon, as there may be things in the water that are not on the chart, or chartplotter screen. While the chances may be small that it will happen to you, it DOES happen to some, and as this example shows, even to very experienced sailors.

[KaptainKirby]

SailFlow bouy? Looks like one to my eye.

[hellosailor]

The missing Mercury space capsule, that was supposed to have sunk and been lost at sea!

There are so many private research buoys out there these days.

If that is in Italian sovereign waters, shouldn't the local "Coast Guard" or national hydrographic authority be able to tell you what it is?

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

The missing Mercury space capsule, that was supposed to have sunk and been lost at sea!

There are so many private research buoys out there these days.

If that is in Italian sovereign waters, shouldn't the local "Coast Guard" or national hydrographic authority be able to tell you what it is?

Colleges seem to have them for research programs.

[kristjan]

ODAS, google it

[tv195]

It's most likely a hydrological buoy like this:



These things are pretty smart:
"AXYS has developed an electronics payload using DGPS to accurately monitor water elevation in any body of water where a surface following buoy can be deployed. In addition to position measurement, a motion sensor on the buoy measures the pitch, roll and heading of the buoy in real time. This data, along with earth tide corrections are supplied to the buoy’s processor, which performs tilt corrections, averaging and filtering. It enables depth positions to be measured on the absolute three dimensions and eliminates the need to estimate water levels The AXYS HydroLevel™ technology is available on many buoy platforms, enabling the system to be used in differing environmental conditions."

And some monitoring buoys are rather huge: