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Gentlemen,
It is "red - right - returning." The reference is to nautical vessels. They have 2 lights side by side on the bow, red on the left and green on the right. When you are traveling at night and see the red light on the right it means the vessel is coming toward you (returning). That way in the pitch black environment of night you can tell if a vessel is approaching you or moving away from you.
GregJ
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Greg--
Well we're probably getting a bit far afield from the world of Healeys, polarity or even battery charging, but here's how it works: The compass is divided into 32 points, (points, cardinal points, intercardinal points, etc.) so that each point equals 11.25 compass degrees. Vessels' sidelights (red/green)are visible from dead ahead to two points (22.5 degrees) abaft the beam (or behind a line drawn perpendicular to the vessel's centerline). Every vessel must yield the right of way to another vessel (forget now about motor vessels versus sailing vessels and big ships versus small boats)that is approaching from dead ahead through 90 degrees on the right. So if I am proceeding along and see a vessel's red (port) sidelight in this quadrant I must yield the right-of-way if we are in a meeting circumstance. He, under the same circumstance will see my green (starboard) sidelight and know that he has the right-of-way. Essentially it is a system of seagoing traffic signals. I believe that aircraft use the same system.
The "red-right-returning" rule refers to which side channel entrance markers are to be kept when coming in from the sea (generally speaking red (even numbered) buoys are to be left to starboard or "right". Similarly "red-right-reducing" is the rule when running down a system of markers as in the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway where green markes are kept on the left and reds on the right when heading south. As with all rules there are exceptions....