Site Navigation:
Searchable Databases
Articles Archive
Pacific Nautical Heritage...
- Gallery of Light and Buoy Images
- Gallery of Mariners
- Gallery of Ship Images
- Gallery of Ship Wrecks
- Gallery of Monuments and Statues
- Gallery of Nautical Images
- Gallery of Freshwater Images
- Gallery of New Books
Canadian Naval Topics…
- Nautical History Videos
- UNTD
- British Columbia Heritage
- Arctic and Northern Nautical Heritage
- Western Canada Boat and Ship Builders
- Gallery of Arctic Images
- Reflections on Nautical Heritage
- British Columbia Heritage
Site Search:
Looking for more? Search for Articles on the Nauticapedia Site.
Cardinal Aids to Navigation / Cardinal Buoys
2016
North Cardinal Buoy VK at Fulford Reef (Photo from the Captain Alec Provan collection. )
The Canadian Aids To Navigation System states that "Cardinal aids may be in the form of either buoys or fixed aids. However, their predominant use is in the form of buoys in the Canadian system."
Cardinal Buoys are yellow and black. They usually carry white lights. The black topmark cones point to the black portion(s) of the buoy. They have lettered designations – no numbers. They carry white retroreflective material. They carry two conical topmarks and the direction of points have significance.
A north cardinal aid indicates that the safest water exists to the north. A north cardinal buoy is coloured black and yellow in approximately equal areas above the waterline, the top half of the buoy being black and the lower half being yellow. It displays identification letter(s) and if it carries a light, the light is white and is a quick flashing (Q)1s or very quick flashing (VQ)5s light, and if it carries a topmark, the topmark is two black cones, one above the other, pointing upward.
An east cardinal aid indicates that the safest water exists to the east. An east cardinal buoy is coloured black with one broad yellow horizontal band. It displays identification letter(s) and if it carries a light, the light is white and is a group quick flashing three Q(3)10s or a group very quick flashing three VQ(3)5s light, and if it carries a topmark, the topmark is two black cones, one above the other, base to base.
East Cardinal Buoy PB (Photo from the John MacFarlane collection. )
East Cardinal Buoy PJ (Photo from the collection. )
A south cardinal aid indicates that the safest water exists to the south. It is coloured with yellow on the top half and black on the lower half. It displays unique identification letters. It can be spar shaped although other shapes may be employed. If it carries a top mark it will display two black cones - one above the other with both points downward. It will carry white reflective material. If it is lit it displays a white light and exhibits a group of six plus long flashes or a group of very quick flashing six plus long flashes.
A west cardinal aid indicates that the safest water exists to the west. It is coloured with yellow and a black horizontal band midway between the top and the water level. It displays unique identification letters. It can be spar shaped although other shapes may be employed. If it carries a top mark it will display two black cones, one above the other, point to point. It will carry white reflective material. If it is lit it displays a white light in nine (15s) quick flashing groups or a group of nine very quick flashing (10s).
Site News: April 19, 2024
The vessel database has been updated and is now holding 92,229 vessel histories (with 15,629 images and 13,195 records of ship wrecks and marine disasters). The mariner and naval biography database has also been updated and now contains 58,616 entries (with 4,013 images).
In 2023 the Nauticapedia celebrated the 50th Anniversary of it’s original inception in 1973 (initially it was on 3" x 5" file cards). It has developed, expanded, digitized and enlarged in those ensuing years to what it is now online. If it was printed out it would fill more than 300,000 pages!
My special thanks to our volunteer IT adviser, John Eyre, who (since 2021) has modernized, simplified and improved the update process for the databases into a semi–automated processes. His participation has been vital to keeping the Nauticapedia available to our netizens.
Also my special thanks to my volunteer content accuracy checker, John Spivey of Irvine CA USA, who has proofread thousands of Nauticapedia vessel histories and provided input to improve more than 11,000 entries. His attention to detail has been a huge unexpected bonus in improving and updating the vessel detail content.