Buoyage is the general term that we use to cover markers that indicate the edges
of safe water in channels open seas and danger areas
There are a number of special buoys to mark special purpose areas such as
swimming areas military practice areas and areas reserved to a particular activity such as jet skis
we will talk about the different groups of buoys later in the video
there are a number of buoys that are used to show us where the safe water is and where the dangers are
a good Mariner will immediately recognise a buoy
and know what action to take to keep the vessel in safe water
in the old days there was a number of buoyage systems used in different parts of the world
and after a few notorious sinkings in the 70s it was decided
to create a worldwide system of buoyage
unfortunately due to the large number of buoys already in existence it was not possible
to have all countries using the same colour buoys to mark the port and the starboard side of channels
and so two flavours of one system came into being
the system is called the International Association of Lighthouse authorities IALA
and with part "B" covering the Americas and some parts of Asia
where their port hand markers are green whilst the rest of the world
maintains a "red buoy to port" marker system which is known as IALA "A"
the two regions of the world are shown in the map here the parts of the world
shaded green have their port and markers green and
the rest of the world has red markers on the port hand side of the channels and
this is when proceeding in towards the port or up a river
two buoys that are easily remembered if you group them together
is the safe water buoy and the isolated danger buoy
the safe water buoy is red and white
and you can think of that like a stick of candy or something like that
and it's got on the top a red ball and we like to think of that as being a red apple
so when you've been out at sea and you're looking to get into port and do some shopping and
get some nice fresh vegetables or some fresh fruit
you can think of it as a red cherry or a red apple on top of the buoy
and this is your "welcome" into the port
and quite often these are used to show where the start of the channel is
at night time the safe water buoy flashes isophase white light or a long flash light
however the isolated danger buoy is black and red -black and red you can think of this as "Dennis the Menace"
the old cartoon character or you can think of a "red back spider" which is obviously quite dangerous
so this is what we call an isolated danger you don't want to go anywhere near the isolated danger
it's marking a little bit of wreckage or an old ruin or some isolated rock
whatever it is you don't want to go there
this is marked on the top with two black balls
so you think of the difference between the two buoys is the safe water it's a nice red cherry and on the top
Isolated danger has two black balls you want to stay away from the two black balls
and at night-time it's flashing two white lights
and the white lights if you think of two flashes together it's like saying "STAY AWAY" "STAY AWAY"
so that's the two buoys
the safe water buoy and the isolated danger buoy
the next two buoys that we have are port hand markers and starboard markers and these mark the edge of the channels
under the IALA A system the port buoys are red colour and the starboard buoys are green colour
both of them have a top mark and the port top mark is a "can" shape so you can think of a "can" of tomato soup
and the starboard buoy is a green shape so you can think of a "Christmas Tree" shape
so those two top marks give you an idea when the sun is a little bit low or
it what we call the colour temperature is not high and you can't quite make out what colour the buoy is
by looking at the top mark however, you can work out whether it is port or a starboard buoy
remember under IALA B system in the US and parts of Asia
the actual shape is the same but the colours are different
at night-time we can identify the red port buoy because it flashes a red light
and we can identify the green starboard hand buoy because it flashes a green light
there are another set of buoys we call these special buoys and they mark a special area
their top mark is an "X" and you can think of this as "extra" special
and this is marking something like a military firing practice area,
a swimming area, a jet ski area, or could be a construction area, outfall for sewage pipes
it could be anything that's not covered by the other buoys
always yellow, the light that they flash is always yellow
their shape can be any shape but it must be "painted yellow"
cardinal buoys, these actually tell us which direction to go with respect to the compass
for example a north buoy will say we have to go north
we don't need to know why we can't go south
the buoy tells us we have to go north
the top mark actually tells us which direction the buoy is
for example if it looks like two arrows pointing up that's north
two arrows pointing down it's south
two arrows pointing towards the middle so it looks like a wine glass would be west
and with the two bases together it could look like an egg so we think of east
they actually mark where we should go rather than where the danger is
the lights at night, they flash white and you can think of a clock
whereby the east buoy is three o'clock
the south buoy is six o'clock
and the west buoy is nine o'clock
for the 12 o'clock position we just say it keeps flashing all the time
we don't need to count to 12
now let's look at each buoy individually
the North Cardinal buoy has arrows pointing up
both arrows are pointing up
you could say like on a chart "up" is north on a chart
also the colour of the buoy being black and yellow
the black part of the buoy is where the arrows point
so if the arrows point up then the top of the buoy that is the part that's black
and at night-time it just keeps flashing all the time
the east cardinal buoy has the base of the arrows together
so the actual arrows point to the very top and to the very bottom
and you'll see the colours,
the colours are the same - black is to the very top and also to the very bottom
and the rest of it is yellow
and the light is flashing three times, because this buoy
if you look in on a watch this buoy is in the three o'clock position
east is the three o'clock position - so it flashes three times
a south cardinal - both arrows point down
if you like on a map or a chart - down is where the south is
and on the buoy itself the black part is the down or is the lower part
and the light being a six o'clock on the the clock face
so it's going to flash six times
however as a special identifier so we don't get confused with 9 or 3
actually at the end of the sixth flash there's going to be an extra long flash
you can think of this as being in a restaurant
you're not sure if you're on table 6 or table 9 - the 6 has got a long line underneath it
and so the light is also flashing 6 flashes and then a long line or a long flash after that
West Cardinal - the two arrows point towards the middle and you can think of
this is looking like a waistline figure or a wineglass
the two arrows are pointing towards the middle so the part of the buoy that's black is in the middle
and at night-time think of it as being in the West is on a compass,
this is in the nine o'clock position so it's flashing nine times
the new buoy is the emergency wreck marker buoy
and this is coloured blue and yellow
and it's got like a yellow cross on the top mark
you can think of this buoy as when a ship suddenly sinks a helicopter flies out and drops this marker buoy
this emergency wreck marker buoy in that area
it's light is flashing blue and yellow
you won't find it on the chart
because once they've actually established where the wreck is or they have cleared the wreck is
then they'll replace this with a normal cardinal buoy
or if the wreck been removed then it's no danger to navigation
there'll be no need for any kind of marker buoy at all so that's the emergency wreck marker buoy
it's just a temporary buoy that's there until they sort out the wreck
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