Have you ever heard that and wondered what it meant? Well, it has to do with buoys in the shipping channels. In the simplest terms, it means to keep the red buoys in the right side (starboard) of the ship when returning from port. Pretty simple...until you throw in some isolated danger marks, safe harbor buoys, private buoys and the elusive "mail buoy" (more on that some other day). Sometimes buoys are not used and "day boards" or "day markers" are used and sometimes you can only see a shape of a buoy. Then what? I like to use this phrase to remember about buoys: "Even Red Nuns Return to the Right Triangle". Hmm...OK, lets break it down. Even - this means that red buoys (the ones you keep to starboard) use even numbers. Green buoys use odd numbers. Red - same as we described above. Nuns - strange as it may sound, nuns here mean the shape. Red unlit buoys sometimes form a "nun" shape which is a tapered top, as opposed to "cans" used for green marks. Return - on the way home. Right - on starboard. Triangle - now this is where day boards come into place. Triangle shapes are placed on poles (in shallow water) to guide ships in. Green markers are squares. Got it? That is until you decide to go to another country that has this reversed! (hint: they also drive on the other side of the road). I'll talk about IALA A & B later on!
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