Who Guards the Coast

 One of the responsibilities of the Canadian Coast Guard is the maintenance of aids to navigation (known as Navaids) such as buoys and various shore installations including lighthouses and range markers.

 Different coloured buoys, usually illuminated, and lighthouses with lights that flash in unique patterns are among the Navaids that mark channels and assist mariners in safe navigation.

Ships entering ports such as Halifax rely on these various devices to assist their masters or local marine pilots for safe navigation by identifying the shipping channels. Even if the ships are equipped with highly sophisticated radar (and not all ships have up to date equipment) or have access to satellite navigation, these do not always work. In that case the ships must rely on the visual characteristics of the navaids, such as colour, frequency of flashing lights and relative position. This is made more diffficult at night when the background lights of the city can make the navaids hard to see.

Most landfolk may not be aware of shore based Range Light markers that align with shipping channels. One prominent one is located in Dartmouth, not far from the Macdonald Bridge, on very high ground in Sinnot Hill Park, above St.Paul's cemetery. There is a fine look off there with a view all the way out to sea, but few people would actually be aware of the name of the park (I wasn't) or the tiny old cemetery.

Fewer still may be aware of the Inner Range Light marker, which aligns with another marker on Georges Island.

It allows ships to line up with the main shipping channel in the harbour and is illuminated at the top with a slow flashing light. It is not hard to understand that light from other sources might well make this marker difficult to see at night, and only the regular flashing light on top would make it stand out.

 The Metropolitan Place - former Holiday Inn building in the background, might also make a difficult backdrop.

There is another such marker farther out toward the harbour entrance - this one located on the grounds of the Damage Control School (naval firefighter training facility) near Sandwich Point.

Situated just off John Blackett Drive (highway 253) between York Redoubt and Herring Cove, the Sandwich Point range light marker is highly visible on shore. However it is not so visible at night as its illumination has been out of order for at least three weeks according to reports I have received. Apparently the Coast Guard does not have an operating reporting system for defective navaids, nor the resources to repair faulty units.

Navaids may be critically important at some point, and they must be reliable to be of use for their intended purpose. That is to keep ships and sailors safe and by inference, the environment of the harbour.

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