Marine Notices No 37 of 2021 and No 44 of 2021 advised of the deployment of two wave buoys and one floating LiDAR buoy at the Dublin Array offshore wind farm on the Bray and Kish Banks.

The two wave buoys were recovered from site in June 2022. Now the Department of Transport has now been advised by Partrac Ltd that the floating LiDAR buoy on Bray Bank is scheduled to be recovered in the period between Thursday 5 and Thursday 19 January 2023, subject to weather and operational constraints.

The floating LiDAR buoy at Latitude 53° 10.645’ N, Longitude 005° 55.785' W has a square footprint with an area of 4 sqm and height of around 4m above the water line. It is yellow in colour and has a St Andrew cross on top.

It also contains a yellow light which emits five flashes every 20 seconds and is visible for up to three nautical miles.

The vessel CT Barnston (callsign MUZU5) will recover the buoy and tow it back to Wicklow Harbour for demobilisation. Dublin Port will be contacted in advance regarding the operations with estimated timings. The buoy will be towed some 30m astern of the CT Branston at a maximum speed of 3.5 knots.

During recovery of the floating LiDAR buoy on Bray Bank, the vessel will be restricted in its ability to manoeuvre. All other vessels are requested to leave a wide berth during the recovery and towing operations. Radio transmissions will be conducted with VTS and other seafarers to notify them of the buoy operations.

Contact details can be found in Marine Notice No 85 of 2022, attached below.

More works are scheduled for the Codling Wind Park project, with the deployment of two lidar buoys to characterise the wind park area from this week.

Weather permitting, the Voe Vanguard (callsign MBEN9) will deploy the buoys in the Irish Sea off Co Wicklow between tomorrow, Tuesday 27 April and Friday 14 May.

Deployment operations will be conducted on a 12-hour basis. The Voe Vanguard will be restricted in ability to manoeuvre, so all vessels operating within its work area are requested to keep their distance, maintaining a safety zone around the survey vessel and pass at minimum speed to reduce vessel wash.

Throughout survey operations, the Voe Vanguard will be displaying appropriate lights and shapes. The lantern on the buoys will give out five yellow flashes every 20 seconds, visible for up to three nautical miles.

Further details including the relevant coordinates are included in Marine Notice No 29 of 2021, which is available to download below.

The latest notice follows previous advisories for geophysical surveys and geotechnical surveys over the next number of weeks for the wind farm scheme at the Codling Bank.