Cardinal buoys

What do cardinal buoys indicate?

Cardinal buoys are used to identify where the water is safe. When you're navigating on the water, the cardinal buoys are used to indicate the location of the safest waters.

What are the 4 cardinal buoys?

The cardinal buoys point out the whereabouts of danger while referring to the four cardinal points: north, south, east, and west.

 

North

North Cardinal Buoy

South

South Cardinal Buoy

East

East Cardinal Buoy

West

West Cardinal Buoy

What are the rules for cardinal buoys?

Boaters will be safe if they pass north of a north mark, south of a south mark, east of an east mark and west of a west mark

The north cardinal buoy indicates that navigable waters are north of the north cardinal buoy. It's coloured yellow and black and has a different flashing white color light on the top. How the strips are placed tells you which of those navigation markers buoy you encounter, i.e. a north cardinal buoy, a south cardinal buoy, a west cardinal buoy or a east cardinal buoy.

   North Cardinal Buoy

  • A north cardinal buoy is located so that the safe water is to the north of the buoy

  • It is coloured black and yellow

  • The top is painted black indicating that it is a north buoy. The lower haft is painted yellow

  • If this buoy does not carry a light, it will be spar shaped

North Cardinal Buoy

South Cardinal Buoy

  • A south cardinal buoy is located so that the safe water is to the south of the buoy

  • It is coloured black and yellow

  • The black is positioned on the bottom indicating that it is pointing south. The upper portion is painted yellow.

South Cardinal Buoy

East Cardinal Buoy

  • East cardinal buoy is located so that the safe water is to the east of the buoy

  • It is coloured black and yellow

  • The black is positioned on the top and the bottom with the yellow portion in the middle to indicate that it is an east buoy

East Cardinal Buoy

West Cardinal Buoy

  • West cardinal buoy is located so that the safe water is to the west of the buoy

  • It is coloured black and yellow

  • The black is positioned in the center to indicate that it is a west buoy The yellow is positioned top and bottom.

West Cardinal Buoy
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