To the Editor:

The Coast Guard is planning to eliminate many navigational buoys in Narragansett Bay, including the Patience Island Lighted Bell Buoy 8 between Patience Island and Warwick Point. This bell buoy is a familiar one to boaters going in and out of Warwick Cove and Greenwich Bay. The Coast Guard is eliminating visual aids to navigation on the assumption that boaters now use electronic charts and navigational aids. However, many smaller recreational boaters in the waters around Bell Buoy 8 do not have or rely on electronic systems. In storms or heavy fog, the bell buoy is an important aid to orient boaters.

Please write to the Coast Guard to oppose the removal of Bell Buoy 8 and other buoys that you rely on when you are on the water.

“The Coast Guard is only accepting written comments, which should be sent to D01-SMB-DPWPublicComments@uscg.mil by June 13 and refer to Project No. 01-25-015. The guidelines instruct boaters to “include size and type of your vessel, recreational or commercial, how you use the signal to navigate, and distance at which you start looking for and utilizing it.”” (Providence Journal 5/19/2025)

I will miss the familiar gong of Bell Buoy 8 carrying news of the wind and waves on the Bay, even when I am on the land.

Jane Kenney Austin

Warwick