So how does it work? Does the US do the opposite? Even in this foreign land of Western Australia, we have red on port & greens on starboard as you enter a harbour / river, same as over east.
But I have always heard that the US does the opposite? Not all agree??
I did see this on a recent trip to Hawaia, I'll see if I can find a photo.
So throw up your own personal opinions & experinces - But NO generic google search or refercnes 
Poods
AFAIK we use IALA type-A, yanks use IALA type B.
Where we have a green marker they would have a red etc,
all other nav aids...cardinal marks etc are the same
cheers
The Americas, Japan, South Korea and the Philippines use IALA (International Association of marine aids to navigation and Lighthouse Authorities) type B, the rest like us uses Type A.
Type A was introduce in 1977 with the rules for type B being completed in 1980.
It's a wonder that it took so long to come up with these systems and what a head ache it must have been before, with over 60 different systems world wide.
We visited San Francisco last year and sailed the harbour (which has this incredable tide) with a group , I ask why the difference in system and the skipper believed it came from the americian revolution, they would reverse the buoy's to confuse the British and they never put them back, it's a good story anyway!!
Yep , we saw it , opposite to here !!!
In a port nth of san Fran , I asked one of the port authority guys in the office , why is it different .
He just laughed and said " well you aussies drive on the wrong side of the road as well ! "
Classic !! I still find it unbelievable !
If I hadn't seen it , no way would I have believed it !,
how about the current going out the bay! I saw one of the buoy's laying on it's side with the force, no wonder you couldn't get off Alcatraz!!
What about the nav lights on the vessels themselves? Are the lights reversed ie port side green and starboard red?
You think that's confusing. When you're traveling around on the rivers and canals that link up the lakes (Ont. Canada), at some predetermined place on the river the nav aids swap over. You are considered to be leaving one lake and entering the next and that's what causes the swap over. Very disconcerting when you don't know what's happening!
The Great Sandy Strait is buoyed as if entry is from the north. I suspect most boats enter from the south at Inskip Pt and assume that is the entrance.
The only difference in the US and the other countries noted above, that I am aware of, is the port and stbd hand marks are reversed. Boats have the same lighting.
Navipedia?? That's handy.http://www.navipedia.pl/en/naviaidsiala.html
More history here.
www.seagoinghk.org/ClassThree/IALA/IALA_Bouyage.pdf
From Wikipedia:-
The IALA defines them as Region A and Region B:
Region A comprises nations in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, parts of Africa and most of Asia other than the Philippines, Japan and Korea.
Region B comprises nations in North America, Central America and South America, the Philippines, Japan and Korea.
G'day Cisco. We did them bringing my sisters Valiant 40 down from Bundy. A wonderful few days. We anchored 3 times, White Cliffs, Garry's and can't remember the other one. Near the shallows I think.
I didn't know the buoyage but we had a skipper that did.
Restocked the fridge at Tin Can then anchored inside Inskip waiting for the sou-Easters to drop below 30kts. Out across the bar in 3 metre standing waves then into the crap around Moreton. Into Yamba to avoid the front coming through. A good sail.
