Red, green, cone, or cylinder, not always easy to find your way around the markers when you start sailing. Fortunately, previous generations of sailors have found tricks to memorize all this. Just remember: " When we enter the port, we put on a green knit and two red stockings".
What does this strange phrase mean?
This sentence allows us to remember the port entry markers. Indeed, it should be understood as follows:
- a green knit is broken down into : im pair, sorting edge, co nique, green . This means that the starboard beacon is conical, green and has odd numbers.
- two stockings so red means: pair, bâ edge, cy lindrical, red . Thus, we understand that the port beacon is cylindrical, red in color and has even numbers.
When entering the harbor, we will therefore leave the green and conical beacon on the starboard side and the red and cylindrical beacon on the port side. When leaving the harbor, it will necessarily be the oppositeâ?¦
Some exceptions
Nevertheless, the channels are sometimes a little more complicated than that. There are some that offer different routes, the preferred channel and the secondary channels. In this case, the markers will have a stripe of the opposite color:
- the port beacon will have a green stripe in the middle,
- the starboard beacon will have a red stripe in the middle.
And at night, how do we do it?
At night, these beacons are represented by lights, red for port and green for starboard, with any rhythm, except for the rhythm of two flashes followed by one flash, which is reserved for the channel division marks.
Note, however, that not all beacons have lights at night.
And abroad?
Unfortunately, this system does not work worldwide, it covers zone A which includes Europe, Africa and everything that is not in zone B. On the other hand, in zone B, which covers the Americas, the Pacific, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, the French departments of the West Indies, French Guiana and St. Pierre and Miquelon, the marking is significantly different:
- on the port side, the light is still cylindrical but the color is green,
- to starboard, the light is still conical but the color is red.
