Seasonal winter buoy “26” passes its summer counterpart as it is launched into the Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, during the summer-to-winter buoy exchange process aboard the Coast Guard Cutter James Rankin, homeported at the Coast Guard Yard in Curtis Bay, Dec. 3, 2018. The James Rankin crew was engaged in the process of exchanging the sleeker seasonal winter buoys for the standard summer buoys throughout the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries in anticipation of the harsh icy winter conditions.
(U.S. Coast Guard photo by AUXPA 1st Class Jeffrey Schneider)