Reading Buoys and Marine Signals

The buoys you see around Kuwait's harbours and approach channels are not just floating pieces of metal — they are a written language that keeps you safe. Every colour and shape means something, and reading them wrong can put your boat on a reef or in the path of a large vessel. Here are the essentials every skipper should know.

The colour system: your right and left

The Gulf follows IALA Region A. The golden rule: when entering from sea towards the harbour, keep red buoys on your port (left) side and green buoys on your starboard (right) side, staying between them in the channel. When leaving the harbour towards open sea, the sides reverse. Red buoys are can-shaped and green buoys are conical, so you can tell them apart even when the paint is faded.

Cardinal buoys

These mark the safe side to pass around a specific hazard — a reef or a wreck. They are black and yellow, and the black markings point the way:

• North: black band on top — pass north of it.
• South: black band at the bottom — pass south of it.
• East: black bands top and bottom — pass east of it.
• West: black band in the middle — pass west of it.

Other marks worth knowing

• Safe water: red and white vertical stripes — deep, safe water on all sides, usually at the channel entrance.
• Isolated danger: black with a red band in the middle — a small hazard around it; keep clear from any direction.
• Special marks: yellow — military zones, pipelines, water-sport areas. Usually means "caution" or "stay away".
• Lights: at night buoys flash in their colours — red flashes red, green flashes green, and the flash pattern (fast or slow) helps you identify the buoy from a distance.

Mistakes that cost dearly

• Never tie your boat to a navigational buoy — it is not a mooring, and your pull can drag it off position and endanger everyone else.
• Never cross a channel at right angles — big ships cannot turn quickly, and you are the one who can move.
• Do not assume a buoy is exactly where it should be after a storm — buoys shift, especially at the start of the season.

Reading buoys is a skill that improves with practice — and the B7R app includes practical navigation tools to complement what you learn, along with the tide times you need to enter a channel at the right moment.

Before your first trip to a new area, open the B7R app, check sea conditions, and note any unusual buoys you pass — those who read the sea well, the sea serves well.