Once again, do the pronunciations of the two words move in parallel? Obviously people in different parts of the world pronounce "boy" in a whole range of different ways - but is it correct to assue that once you've hear them pronounce "boy" that is the same way they probably pronounce "buoy"?

So far we've had one indication, from Mmario, that in at least one place you couldn't make that assumption.

Once complicating factor might be that, in some places inland, where you don't find many buoys, there might be people who had learnt the word from books, and could have made up a pronunciation from the way it was spelt, which was different from however it was they said "boy" in that part of the world.