Several years ago, when I was working for one of the local marine towing companies, we got a call to help a fellow who had gone aground on the sand bar just outside the jetty, near Lazaretto Creek. It was a hard grounding and he had sucked enough sand into his intake to destroy the impellors on both his engines. So, once we got him off the bar, we had to tow him back to Harbor Town. Not a very good beginning in his brand new cigarette boat – his first day out. Our service cost him over a thousand dollars (which he readily pulled in cash from his pocket) and despite his belief to the contrary, fixing the damage he did when he pulled buckets of sand through his impellors doesn’t usually qualify as “warranty work”. But what really capped off the day for us, was when he asked us what “those red and green things are for?” Newbies… gotta love ‘em. They keep the towboat operators in business… especially those that have more money than brains.

Well if you own a boat and don’t know what those “red and green things” are for, you better put down this paper (better yet, take it with you – lest anyone take your copy) and run to the computer and type in “www.savannahaux.com”. Then click on “Public Education” and sign up for one of our Boating Skills and Seamanship courses. I’ll wait until you get done...

Ok, now, don’t you feel better that you have done the right thing. I have been to Sea School for my 6-pack and my 100-ton master’s license and learned plenty in those courses, and have been boating for quite a few years, but I can tell you that the Boating Skills and Seamanship Class offered by the Coast Guard Auxiliary is packed with really great information for any boater, new or seasoned. I highly recommend it, and not just because I am one of their instructors. You really do get your money’s worth in this class.

So what are the “red and green things” for? You’ll learn the whole story in the class, but let me give you the “skinny” on what they are, since it could save YOU a thousand dollars or more. They are called “Aids to Navigation”, or “Nav Aids”, or just “ATONS”. They mark the sides of the channels, thence the term, “lateral aids”. Used with your chart, they keep you in good water.

Reds are always evenly numbered and greens odd. They may be attached to posts (beacons) and as such are know as daymarkers. Or, they may be buoys, known as cans (green) or nuns (red). Offshore, they may be raised on pillar buoys, and may have such sound making devices as bells, whistles, or gongs and they may even have RADAR-responding capabilities. ATONS may have lights (red or green to match their day colors) or not. The red daymarkers are triangular in shape and the greens are rectangular.

Now the more important question is, when you see one, which side of the marker should you be on in order to be in the deeper water. Obviously, if you can see a red and green side-by-side, the easy answer is to stay between them, since they mark the sides of the channel. But most of the markers around these waters do not form nice, neat little “gates” that you stay between. Most often, you will only see either a red or a green, so knowing which side to take them on is very important.

What makes this a little more interesting, is the fact that there are actually two systems in these waters: The seaward system at the inlets and their associated rivers, and the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) system that runs from Norfolk to Miami. To help with the distinction, the ICW markers will all have a tiny yellow triangle on the red markers and a yellow rectangle on the green markers… (Well, generally… I’ll get to that in a minute.) So, when you are on the ICW, you keep the red markers (yellow triangle) on your right (greens, with their yellow rectangle on the left) as you travel south. On the seaward system, you want to keep the reds on the right when you are coming in from sea. So, the mnemonics are “Red Right Returning (from sea)” on the seaward system and “Red Right Returning (from the north)” on the ICW system. Clear? It will be when you study them on a chart.

Now for the fun part. There are times when these two systems meet, either to transition from one to another, cross each other, or to run together for a while. We have a transition right here on the Wilmington River near the Savannah Yacht Club, where the ICW heads south past the yacht club, then turns into Skidaway River. Boaters traveling on out to sea on the Wilmington will notice that the red markers switch from being on their right (while on the ICW) to being on their left once they pass the Skidaway river. This is particularly troubling for boaters coming in from sea, who try to keep the first red marker past the Skidaway river on their right as they have done all the way up the river. This error puts them on a rather nasty sand bar, just above the Yacht Club.

Another interesting location is far south of here at the Kingsbay Channel, where the ICW actually follows the seaward system for awhile. Here, little yellow rectangles (indicating ICW reds) appear on the green rectangles of the seaward system (as do yellow squares on red triangles). Why? Because the two systems are using the same seaward channel, but for the ICW, the makers are on the wrong side. So, the little yellow symbols signify the proper way to go, when following the ICW. Confused? Don’t be. You did sign up for the class, right? We’ll explain everything in detail, there. See you in class.