Surrounded by buoys!

Well we're broken down here in sunny Hull so my dreams of sailing away into the sunset have been thwarted slightly. I've been reacquainting myself with the old girl, her crew and our surroundings. Been out and about taking photos.


Many of you will have been on boats or ferries in your life or even been lucky enough to go on a cruise so you may well have seen these navigational buoys in the water and wondered what on earth they meant.

The beginnings of a navigational buoyage system began to emerge around 1889. Certain countries agreed to mark some of their channels by placing black can shaped buoys on the port ( left) hand side and red conical buoys on the starboard ( right) side.
Things were complicated with the addition of lights because some added a red light to the port side mark whereas some added a red light to the starboard side mark to match the red buoy.
In 1973 the International Association of Lighthouse Authorities (IALA) tried to make a single worldwide system. Eventually 2 regions were agreed upon with regard to the Lateral navigation marks. Region B is the Americas and Pacific and Region A is everywhere else. So most of the places I have sailed to use the Region A system of buoyage and it is this one I shall refer to here.

There are 5 main types of navigational mark.

1) Lateral - these indicate the sides of a well defined channel according to the direction of buoyage. *
A port hand mark will be a red can shaped buoy with an optional top mark of a small red can. It's light will be red.
A starboard hand mark will be a green cone shaped buoy with an optional top mark of a small green cone. It's light is green.

2) Cardinal - these indicate where the best navigable water is in relation to a danger or hazard and are referenced to the 4 points of a compass, North(N), South(S), East(E) and West (W).
The buoys are yellow with black bands which relate to the black cone shape topmark. Each topmark is made up of 2 black cones in various unique combinations. The lights are white and all relate to the clock.

As an example a South cardinal buoy has a top mark of 2 black cones, in a vertical line both with points facing down. The buoy colour is yellow with black around the bottom half of the buoy. It's light would be white either VeryQuick6 + Long Flash 10s or Quick6 + L Fl 15s.

The named side is the safe side to pass so if you saw a South Cardinal buoy ahead you would pass to the South of it.

3) Isolated Danger Mark - used to mark areas/ isolated dangers of limited extent.eg a wreck. They usually have navigable water all around them. They are black and red in colour and always have a top mark of 2 black spheres in a vertical line. The light is white and always Fl(2)( A group of 2 flashes close together. )

4) Safe Water Mark - As the name suggests these indicate safe water around the mark and are usually found in channels/rivers to mark the mid channel. They can be either spherical, pillar or spar shaped and are red and white vertically striped. The light, if fitted, is white, occulting, isophase, LFl 10s or morse code 'A' ( ._ )**

5) Special marks - these are not of navigational importance but just help to indicate a special area, depicted in a chart. These can include: naval exercise areas, recreational areas for bathing or water skiing or cables and pipelines.
They are yellow with a topmark of a yellow St Andrews cross. It's light is yellow and the rhythm is one not used by any other mark nearby.


Opposite where my ship is berthed I noticed these buoys, obviously out the water for servicing, they are L-R spherical Safe Water Mark, Lateral port hand mark, spherical Safe Water Mark, Special Mark, Lateral Starboard hand mark and South Cardinal buoy. Now it's got a bit darker I see they are still merrily flashing away with their own special coloured light and rhythm.

*Direction of buoyage - always marked on navigation charts. Local direction used when entering ports/rivers from seaward. General Direction is clockwise around continents. Around the UK it is North (N) up the West(W) coast and Irish Sea, East (E) up the English Channel and then N up the North Sea.

** Occulting - duration of light is longer than dark.
Isophase - duration of light and dark are equal.
Flashing - light shorter than dark
LongFlash - 2 seconds or longer.