Returning from sea, you come to a buoy with red and green horizontal bands, the top band red. How should you pass it to stay in the preferred channel?
- Leave it to starboard, as you would a red buoy
- Leave it to port, as you would a green buoy
- Pass close aboard on either side of the buoy
- Stay well clear; it marks an isolated danger
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A. Leave it to starboard, as you would a red buoy
A red-and-green banded buoy marks a junction or obstruction, and the colour of the top band shows the preferred channel: top band red is treated as a red buoy and left to starboard when returning. You can pass the other side, but that is the secondary channel. An isolated danger mark is black and red.
Reference: 33 CFR 62.25
What does a buoy with red and white vertical stripes indicate?
- Safe water all round, such as a fairway or mid-channel
- An isolated danger with navigable water around it
- The starboard side of the channel when returning
- A special area such as an anchorage or cable zone
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A. Safe water all round, such as a fairway or mid-channel
Red and white vertical stripes are a safe water mark: there is navigable water all around it, and it is used for fairways, mid-channels and landfalls. If lighted it shows a white Morse 'A'. Special marks are yellow, and isolated danger marks are black with a red band.
Reference: 33 CFR 62.27
Which describes an isolated danger mark?
- Red and white vertical stripes with a single red sphere as a topmark
- Yellow all over with a yellow X-shaped topmark
- Red and green horizontal bands with no topmark
- Black with a red horizontal band and two black spheres as a topmark
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D. Black with a red horizontal band and two black spheres as a topmark
An isolated danger mark is black with one or more red horizontal bands, carries two black spheres one above the other, and if lighted shows a white group-flashing (2) light. It is placed on or near a danger with navigable water all round. Red and white stripes are safe water.
Reference: 33 CFR 62.29