BENSON BEACH — A navigation buoy notorious for breaking free washed ashore on Benson Beach this month.

Buoy 8, which ordinarily marks the entrance to the Columbia River navigation channel, washed ashore about a mile north on Benson Beach in Cape Disappointment State Park last Saturday, March 4, before being removed by the Coast Guard on Tuesday, March 7.

“It’s a whistle buoy that marks the channel over at Clatsop Spit,” said Steve Feldscher, D13 marine navigation equipment specialist for the U.S. Coast Guard Aids to Navigation team based in Astoria, detailing the 35-foot long and 9-foot wide buoy.

“It had broken free once a year over the last three years and decided it wanted to wash up here on Saturday. We’re going to get it out of here and the boat will go set it back in its location.”

A 30-metric ton Link-Belt excavator was tasked with doing the heavy lifting on Tuesday, March 7, first connecting to a massive chain before pulling the embedded buoy from the sand, where it was gradually loaded on cart and removed from the beach.

Back in March 2016, Buoy 8 made one of its most successful escape attempts, ending up near the mouth of Willapa Bay. At the time, the U.S. Coast Guard playfully noted, “you may be catching some odd sounds coming from the beach, some of which resemble that of a dying cow. Don’t fret, it’s just a friendly 8-foot whistle buoy that washed ashore and is generating sounds as the waves push into its tubes. … We take a moment to relish in the twang of ATON [Aids to Navigation] culture as this little lost buoy plays you the song of its people.”

The mournful whistling can be heard at least a mile away and is an aid to mariners lost in the thick fog that often blankets the mouth of the Columbia — infamously among the foggiest places in the United States. Violent surf, salt corrosion eating away at anchor chains and other factors occasionally allow the buoy to make a run for it.