What's up with the California Buoy being down for so long?
One would think it's in a key spot for swell prediction
and they would have gotten around to fixing it by now.

Budget cuts, maybe?

<http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=46059>

Station 46059 went adrift on 01/09/2009 and the last report
moored position was at 0700Z.  The buoy was recovered on
04/11/2009. This buoy will be restored to service when
it can be worked into the schedule.

First off, NOAA doesn't do the buoy setting, the Coasties do. And they
have 16 seagoing buoy tenders ( Juniper class, 225' long - see
http://www.uscg.mil/datasheet/225wlb.asp ) to cover ...well, basicly,
the world. Really, there's on in Guam.

The cutter Aspen out of San Francisco ( http://www.uscg.mil/d11/cgcAspen/)
has the San Diege -Oregon area, with about a gazillion buoys, aids to
navigation and what have you to deal with, plus 13 NOAA buoys to set,
service and replace.

Then....well, these days, the Coasties are stretched pretty thin. You
got the whole homeland security riff with checking out people who
might be bringing in stuff that'd go boom, you got your basic
interdictin' stuff coming across the borders that won't blow up....but
it might be blow, y'know?  You got oil spills, you got bailing out
dimbulb yachties who shoulda stuck with rubber duckies in bathtubs,
you got chasing ( and boarding, and boarding, and boarding)
commercial fishing guys who are trying to stay off the dole, general
rescues, people smugglers, sending guys and coast guard vessels off to
the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea and...the list goes on.

And, give or take the several big high endurance cutters based out of
CA but mostly doing open ocean stuff or operating 'to the south'
'twixt, say, Columbia and the US border, it's the Aspen, one coastal
buoy tender ( the George Cobb out of San Pedro)  and one 110' patrol
boat ( the Edisto) out of San Diego for the scut work. Note that I say
scut work, 'cos sending a big cutter on a scut job ain't gonna happen
when the skipper waaay outranks the guy skippering the buoy tender.

There are supposed to be more cutters on the way, bigger ones, so the
Aspen and the others can maybe go back to what they were built to
do....except the Deepwater program that was set up for that had a few
problems, as it was set up with basicly the contractors in charge, not
the Coast Guard, and that turned into a major fiasco (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_Deepwater_System_Program and
sundry links from that) ...what happens when ya leave the rats to
guard the cheese and then lock out the cats, y'know?

So, lets just say that you might wanna be watching the satellite
weather for a bit....

And if ya see a coastie, don't grouse about buoys, buy him ( or her) a
beer. He might be my nephew, and in any event he or she could prolly
use one. He might even be an ASer.....

doc....

I knew this was the right place to ask. Thanks, doc.

PS - A round of drinks for any coasties I come across

And, while we're on the subject of buoys...
Does anyone know where to find info on Scripps CDIP buoys?
Specifically, a new buoy is apparently due to go in service right
in my back yard. The web page for it has been up for months,
but no data, yet. I tried hunting around the Scripps website. No luck.
Someone know the secret handshake?

http://cdip.ucsd.edu/?nav=recent&sub=observed&stn=154&stream=p1&xitem=pm
and

http://cdip.ucsd.edu/?nav=recent&sub=observed&stn=154&stream=p1&xitem...

or if you prefer NOAA format

http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=44097

I'm not surprised that you didn't see data earlier, near as I can tell
from the charts and stuff it came on line yesterday sometime.

That help any?