Florida buoy adrift for a year comes ashore in Spain

Carnota, Spain - Ever wonder where something would go if it were left in the Gulf Stream off our waters? NOAA's east Canaveral buoy labeled 41010 broke free of it's mooring 120miles off Cape Canaveral almost exactly one year ago.  It was found washed ashore on the rocks in Carnota Spain near the town of Lira.

Why couldn't they find it?  Shortly after the buoy set adrift, the electronics went out and it stopped transmitting.  Without GPS, finding the 20 foot buoy in the vast Atlantic would be like finding a needle in a haystack.

This has actually happened before.  Chief Meteorologist Steve Weagle says "The Nova Scotia buoy recorded a 101 foot wave height during the 1991 'Perfect Storm' event before it disappeared. That was the highest wave height ever recorded. The buoy was found a year later along the European coast."

The Canaveral buoy is thought to have traveled the gulf stream across the Atlantic, nearly 4,000 miles!  NOAA and the Spanish government will be determining if anything is salvageable, and how to get it back to the US.

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