Buoy, Oh Buoy

Returning from Scotland, I decided to investigate buoys—you know, those little beach ball things. I spotted an endless array of them on prior trips to Wales and England while traveling along the rugged coastline and recently in Scotland as I drove past mountain-shrouded lochs. Not being nautical in the least, I found myself fascinated by those mysterious, round orbs, so I plunged into the Internet (face it: all fiction writers are closet researchers) where I learned…
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• A mooring buoy, used only to secure a vessel, is white with a blue horizontal band.
• A safe water buoy, showing a clear water channel, is white with red vertical stripes.
• An inland water obstruction buoy is white with black vertical stripes – avoid that shore!
• A hazard buoy, marking rocks/shoals, is white with two orange bands and a diamond.
• A boats keep out buoy (self-explanatory) is white with an orange diamond and cross.​

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