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How to avoid Yellow bouys without a chartplotter

3K views 12 replies 10 participants last post by  sailingdog 
#1 ·
Anyone have a fear of running into a Yellow Bouy in the Ocean. Many are more than 40 miles out. Paper Charts that go out that far are not so detailed as a chart plotter. Does this mean that I have to have a chartplotter far out in the ocean if I don't want to hit one of these bouys?
 
#2 ·
I know this will sound silly - but you may just have to watch for them, like you do for lobster floats, jetsum and flotsum, and the such.

If you can aviod lobster floats at high tide in the Gulf of Maine, Yellow Bouys are a piece of cake!

Rik
 
#8 ·
Please don't missunderstand.

We have RADAR, AIS reciever, DSC Radio, Chart plotter, moving map software on our laptop . . . honest - have them and use them all, but, we absolutly love to cruise the coast of Maine and there you just have to play the "lobster trap float polka"! No choice.

More than five weeks there this past summer and we only picked up one, and I got it off without using a knife at all. I really really try to avoid costing a lobster person their gear.

And all possible because we try our best to avoid stuff that wants to wrap around our prop. :)
 
#9 ·
A lot to be said for the Mark I eyeball...
 
#12 ·
The ODAS and other Cautionary buoys shown on chart 530 (NE Pacific area) indicate that they have a light characteristic of either Fl(4) or Fl(5). Many have a PA (position approximate) notation.

I actually find them harder to see in daylight. I go out to the South Brooks buoy quite often.
 
#13 ·
Not all of them are on the charts... since some of them are often temporary in nature. Most are lit, and should be easily spotted at night, less so in the daytime. I'd point out that none of the lobster/crab pot buoys are lit, and many are painted dark colors that are very difficult to spot in the best of conditions. Spotting a much larger yellow buoy should be chickenfeed by comparison.
 
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