Switching between IALA regions. Anyone messed it up?

[mattonthesea]

Forget A & B. We had been deliberating on our first passage through the Swale or the channel just north of the Isle of Sheppey that, choosing the latter, I still had it in my head that the buoyage changed half way along. And, in the dark there were two lights, red and green, just asking to be gone between!

Approaching the Guadeloupe canal the depth dropped suddenly and yet the boats ahead were bigger than mine. It took me a while to clock that I'd diverted up a side channel but the lights were far enough apart that I could 'see' a different channel between the two!

A yacht was approaching the harbour on Flores. Several of us went to help while one hailed on the VHF. We never did understand what part of the reminder
"Keep the red light to port" they didn't understand. Fortunately, the crunch on the breakwater sounded far worse than any damage.

 

[fredrussell]

Honestly, I think it may be better for all concerned if I stay in region A! In all seriousness when confronted with the scenario in post 8 I would just steer my boat straight through the middle. Oh deary me.

 

[RunAgroundHard]

The 'can' is rhe phm.

Well that took me a few hours to work out what "phm" meant, thinking it must be some RN shorthand and having exhausted this list left me stumped. After a 4 hour drive, a cup of tea and laptop doom scrolling session it popped into my head, port hand mark.

 

[capnsensible]

Well that took me a few hours to work out what "phm" meant, thinking it must be some RN shorthand and having exhausted this list left me stumped. After a 4 hour drive, a cup of tea and laptop doom scrolling session it popped into my head, port hand mark.

That was me being lazy. I normally hate tla's.....

 

[Frank Holden]

Try Chile
'In common with the rest of the Americas Chile is an IALA B country ( 'red right returning'). 'From seaward' is taken to mean from south to north through the channels ( an exception being Canal Magdalena ) unless they have east-west orientation in which case the buoyage runs from west to east. In the approaches to ports, the buoyage runs as you would expect it to run.

An exception to the rule is the buoyage as you enter Rio Tempanos from the north on the way down/up to Laguna San Raphael. While you would expect this to be treated as a river or port entrance the 'from south to north' rule - see above - still applies and as a result you leave red to port when entering the river'

 

[rotrax]

We had to cope when sailing in the Pacific NW, out of Whidbey Island, WA. A local sailor gave us the simple 'three R's'

Red Right Returning.

Worked OK, but it can be 400 feet deep 5 metres offshore in those parts....................................

I did question a sandbank about a quarter mile offshore that was not shown on the chart.

The Harbourmaster said "Just wait a while".

We did, it sounded and was never seen again. It was the barnacle encrusted back of a very large whale.................................