🔍 Key Concepts

• How buoys are drawn on charts to show their approximate shape and any lean or list • Whether the apparent lean of a buoy symbol on a paper chart is meant to represent current/wind or is just a drafting convention • The difference between information that affects safe passing side and information that is just symbol orientation

💭 Think About

• Ask yourself: is the direction the buoy symbol seems to lean on the chart intended to give you a side of passage, or is that given by its color, shape, and light characteristics instead? • Consider whether all buoys of the same type on a chart lean in different directions according to local conditions, or whether they are drawn consistently in one way by the chart maker. • Think about which charted buoy characteristics are explicitly used in the Lateral System (red right returning, green on preferred channel side, etc.) and whether “leaning direction” is one of those characteristics.

✅ Before You Answer

• Check your chart legend for how buoy symbols are explained and whether symbol orientation carries any navigational meaning. • Confirm which features tell you where to pass a buoy: color, shape (can, nun, spar), number, and light, versus purely graphical details of the printed symbol. • Make sure the option you choose does not assume that a small drawing detail automatically means a required side of passage or a "major" aid unless that’s clearly defined in chart symbology references (like Chart No. 1).