Way Downstream …

      If you’re wondering what that large Coast Guard vessel is doing maneuvering about on the Chesapeake this time of year, we have the answer.

      It’s the James Rankin, and the black-hulled, 175-foot ship has just begun the task of replacing 77 Bay buoys.

     Why do it when the icy winds blow? That’s the point; an accumulation of ice and snow can submerge the large buoys marking channels, which can threaten ship captains for whom winter is just another boating season. 

       “We typically swap out six buoys a day, which takes between eight and 12 hours, if everything goes smoothly,” Lt. Comdr. Linden Dahlkemper said in a release explaining what the Coast Guard is up to.

       Our math isn’t great, but sounds to us like they’ll be done by Christmas.

      The James Rankin is home-ported in Baltimore and, like other buoy tenders, is named for a lighthouse keeper. Rankin, who died nearly a century ago, was an Irish immigrant who arrived just after the Civil War and went on to a storied career tending lighthouses in California. He did his job so well — he’s credited with saving 18 people — that a boat 2,500 miles away bears his name.