[Rich]

Yes... FORGET RRR (Red Right Return) on the inland waters of NH!

This threw me for a loop when I first started on the lake.

I grew up as a teenager boating out of Gloucester harbor. My dad was ex Navy (not that it matters), and taught me to navigate.

When I took my NH boating license course, I even had an argument with the instructor, not about the NH Inland Spar system, but about the ocean ATONs (Aids TO Navigation).

The class room documentation and booklets and all said the salt water ATONs were Red and Green. So I asked, "when did they change from Red and Black", he said they were always Red and Green and there never were any that were black!

I guess I was showing my age, as I knew that they were black when I was a kid. He kept arguing with me, so I had to call my brother-in-law, he used to work in the Coast Guard setting ATONs. He confirmed that years ago, they had to pull all the black ATONs and repaint them GREEN!

Oh, sorry for going off topic...

Just forget R R R in fresh water in NH!

And... the details are:

Red Top (think hot, like the South West), so South if you are heading East or West, and go West if you are heading North or South.

Black Top (think cold, like the North East), So North if you are heading East or West, or go East if you are heading North or South.

So it's not just go "North or East", it matters if you are heading in a northern /southern or eastern/western direction.

Note that sometimes it's confusing, so always check a chart for the proper side, especially when there are multiple spars in the area. I've seen a few places on the lake where just glancing at your compass to decide where to go didn't quite work properly.