Buoys

[Hooked]

can someone tell me what different color buoys mean like red and green and lighted and not

[Buckeye]

They are your channel markers. Red for port and green for starboard just like your lights on the boat. The colors keep you in the channel if you keep them on the correct side in the event you can only find one due to limited visibility. I may need to be corrected but the port/starboard and red/green bouy match when you are headed out the channel.

[pops/ont]

depends on if your heading upstream or down...

[Frightened!]

Frightened by the question and scared by the answers. Please go to www.boatsafe.com and scroll down to the (Online Boating Courses) and take one. YOU WILL BE AMAZED at the different buoys that are used and also that they mean MANY things besides just RIGHT and LEFT. The course is worth it. Please take it so we don't have as many "Lake Erie" incidents this next season. Let me know what you thought of their site.

[Road Kill]

Remember red right returning from the sea. The U.S. coast guard offers a great class on boating navagition. All new boaters would do well to take this course.

[Boatnut]

I agree!
If someone doesn't know the difference between red and green bouys, then they have no business out on the lake!
SAFE BOATING IS NO ACCIDENT!
Mike(boatnut)

[JJJJ]

Or Red to the Right Upstream, if your in a river!!

[Hooked]

MAYBE I SHOULD HAVE MADE IT MORE CLEAR ! last week we ran into a string of red & green in a row mixed with nothing but shoreline on either side ,map showed we where in a channel?

[Where?]

Where did you find this? Chances are that the people setting buoys didn't know what they were doing. In this case I would definately hug the buoys as I passed through. I am gonna re check the information I had about buoy placement and see if I just plumb forgot that this is a valid way to mark a channel, but I doubt it. Either way, take the online boating course just for fun, I am. I have passed a Coast Guard boating course years back, but a refresher won't hurt.

[cisco]

"Red right returning" is also the watchword of the US Power Squadron, another fine organization for boating safety courses. I'm in the minority, but I believe all boaters should have to take and pass a boating safety course, AND hold valid boat operator's licenses.

It makes no sense to me that any adult can buy a boat and simply take off across public waters.