Irish Lights Deploys UK Met Office Buoy 250 miles off France

29th May 2013

#UKMetOfficeBuoy – The Commissioners of Irish Lights tender ILV Granuaile (2000/2,625grt) successfully deployed a KI buoy recently for the UK's Met Office.

The positioning of the deep-water mooring buoy took place some 250 miles west of the French port of Brest in Brittany.

The Romanian built / Dutch outfitted Granuaile, has previously carried out maintenance visits on the K1 buoy, this was the first time a completely new set of moorings was deployed.

The extreme length of the cable introduced new and potentially hazardous challenges to the ships personnel.

In total almost 2,500 meters of a mixture of rope and chain moorings were deployed in depths of 1,500 m.

The successful deployment of the deep-water mooring proved how versatile and innovative the Granuaile is and that of her crew when faced with tough new offshore challenges.

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Jehan Ashmore

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Jehan Ashmore is a marine correspondent, researcher and photographer, specialising in Irish ports, shipping and the ferry sector serving the UK and directly to mainland Europe. Jehan also occasionally writes a column, 'Maritime' Dalkey for the (Dalkey Community Council Newsletter) in addition to contributing to UK marine periodicals.

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