The boat

Buoys and Beacons

In 1806 Napoleon created a Lighthouses and Beacons Service to identify hazards (rocks, shallows, obstacles, etc.) and define navigable channels. The system covering beacons or marks has become international

There are two types:

Cardinal buoys
They identify hazards with North as reference: an East buoy is passed to the East, a South mark is passed to the South. The marks have various shapes (towers, poles, buoys) identifiable by their features (two cones pointing up = North, pointing down = South) and colours (yellow and black).
Lateral buoys

They determine port entrances. Lateral buoys consist of greens left to starboard and reds left to port. Green buoys are cone shaped and have odd numbers. Red buoys are cylinder shaped and have even numbers. Certain buoys have a bell, horn or whistle that is wave-operated so they can be heard in fog. Other marks indicate an isolated hazard, a wreck, bathing strip of 300 meters, etc.

In France, 8,207 buoys mark the coasts.