WASHINGTON — There is still no answer as to who put seven Rehoboth Beach lifeguard stands into the ocean, but now officials are glad to know they have all been located.
“Back in early July, we realized seven of our chairs went missing,” says Rehoboth Beach Patrol Captain Kent Buckson. “A couple days later, we came to learn that they had all been floated out to the ocean.”
Within weeks, the lifeguard stands began showing up along the eastern coast of the Delmarva Peninsula in places such as Ocean City and Assateague. However, one remained missing until the Labor Day weekend.
“Some tourists had seen the lifeguard stand out in the surf and pulled it out,” Chicamocomico Water Rescue Captain Chester Bailey says. It ended up near Salvo, North Carolina, which is about 250 miles away from Rehoboth Beach.
The stand was spotted rolling in the surf, and when low tide came, the tourists were able to bring it onto the beach.
Lifeguard stands can do major damage to both people and boats out in the ocean. They stand about 10 feet tall and weigh about 500 pounds. Luckily, the area where the stand washed up was relatively empty.
“We’re south of Nags Head on Hatteras Island, and I’m pretty sure we stick out farther into the ocean than anywhere else on the east coast,” Bailey says.
That means a lot of weird things wash ashore.
“The water here is really rough and there’s all kind of stuff falling off ships.”
Now the big question, besides who put the chairs out into the ocean, is how — or if — the stand will get back to Rehoboth Beach.
Buckson said the other six chairs are in storage ready to be used when they are needed.
“This one that was just found, I’m not sure,” Buckson says of reusing it. “It’s got a lot of water rot to it. Obviously, there’s a lot of barnacles on it. I’m not sure about the status of that chair yet.”
Also, it might be too expensive to bring back to Rehoboth Beach. Bailey wants to get it back to Delaware, but if it can’t get there, “We will use it on our beach if they don’t want it.”
