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Navigation Aids

On-screen text: BOATING

Speaker 1: It’s a little different up here in New Hampshire. The only way you would know that this hazard was behind us is because of these navigational buoys.

Speaker 2: Here in the state of New Hampshire, we have our spar buoy system—red tops and black tops. They are maintained and dispersed out by our department here. The red top you would stay south and west of, and the black top you would stay north and east.

Speaker 3: Right out here, in the middle of this wide-open water, there’s a big rock pile. You can see the five markers.

Speaker 4: Yeah.

Speaker 5: Oh, wow.

Speaker 4: Is there a buoy on that one?

Speaker 3: There’s five of them.

Speaker 4: Five buoys.

Speaker 3: Five. It’s an island just barely under the water.

Speaker 2: And then we have channel markers that are all black and all red, and you would stay in between those to stay away from obstructions that may be outside that channel.

Speaker 1: If they’re all black and all red, you go in the middle. If they’re black with red—so topped black or topped red—you choose the side—

Speaker 3: You choose your direction.

Speaker 1: —depending on what color.

Speaker 3: A solid color, you’ll pass in between.

Speaker 2: On the seacoast, they have the nuns and cans. And those are the federally mandated or marked.

Speaker 6: And why are these so important?

Speaker 2: Here in New Hampshire, we’re known for the Granite State, and we have a lot of obstructions out there. It’s a vast body of water that looks like it’s safe for a great distance, but out in the middle, there could be a rock pile or some other obstruction. So then we put those nav aids there.

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