AOSA Waypoints for Wabamun Lake.
Updated 2010-11-14. (Some Way Points on this table are missing coordinates), Read the NOTES at the bottom.

1

COMMUNICATION TOWER (North of Moonlight Bay)
- 1 white strobe light, flashes approx once per 5 sec.

Entrance to Wabmun Marina Channel - (NOTE 2)

Allison Point.

5

COMMUNICATION TOWER (North of Ascot Beach)
- 4 red clearance lights top to bottom; beacon, marker, beacon, marker.  (Flash pattern is continuous on ,off)

Entrance to small bay east of the Wabamun inlet Channel.

Entrance to Wabamun inlet Channel (deep water approach)

Wabamun Sailing Club (dock)

Rich's Point.

Ascot Beach.

Freeman Beach.

Whitewood Bay (2 AOSA moorings)

Whitewood Sands Point.

Poole Sail Club (PSC) (Red Marker Buoy)

15

COMMUNICATION TOWER (North of Fallis)
- 4 red clearance lights top to bottom;  beacon, marker, beacon, marker.  Flash pattern is continuous on, off)

YoWoChAs Camp (Dock).

Coal Point East Side (2 AOSA moorings)

18

  Coal Point South Cardinal Buoy - Yel above Blk.
- Safe water is South quadrant (6 O'clock).
- 1 KM white lantern: 6 Quick flashes + one 2 sec flash in 15 secs,  (The long flash is there to avoid confusion with 9 flashes of a West Buoy).

Village of Fallis.

Edmonton Yacht Club (EYC) (2 AOSA moorings)

21

COMMUNICATION TOWER (SE of Sunshine Bay)
- 2 red clearance lights lights top to bottom; marker, marker. Steady on.

Entrance to Small Bay (south end of Seba Beach)

Entrance to SBYC Creek.

Entrance to Sunshine Bay.

Sunshine Bay Point (reeds @ east side of bay entrance).

Sunshine Bay (2 AOSA moorings).

S.B.Y.C. (dock).

Matwa Bay.

Betula Beach.

Mold Point.

Entrance to Rosewood Bay (deep water approach)

32

Rosewood Bay North Cardinal Buoy - Blk above Yel
- Safe water is North quadrant (12 O'clock).
- 1 KM white lantern: Quick flashing once per sec (continuous).
- NOT DEPLOYED DUE TO DAMAGE

Rosewood Bay (2 AOSA moorings)

Beaver Bay.

Beaver Creek (mouth).

36

 Armstrong North Cardinal Buoy - Blk above Yel
- Safe water is North quadrant (12 O'clock).
- 1 KM white lantern: Quick flashing once per sec (continuous).
- NOT DEPLOYED DUE TO DAMAGE

Armstrong Gravel Point.

Gardiners Cove.

Entrance to Sundance Channel. (deep water approach)

40

TRANS ALTA SUNDANCE POWER PLANT - 3 chimneys oriented N, S e/w 3 red beacon lights.  Flash pattern is upward sweep.

41

Center of AOSA Chart Compass Rose, 
(See compass rose waypoint note below).

42

KEEPHILLS POWER PLANT - 2 chimneys oriented N, S  e/w white flashing strobe lights.

44

  Iron Head West Cardinal Buoy: Yel, Blk above Yel.
- Safe water is West quadrant (9 O'clock).
- 1 KM white lantern: 9 Quick Flashes in 15 secs
- NOT DEPLOYED DUE TO DAMAGE

 Highvale Weather Transmitter

 Iron Head Point.

 Iron Head Bay (2 AOSA moorings). (NAD 83)

 CN Train Trestle, East (lake side).

 CN Train Trestle, East (bay side).

 CN Train Trestle, West (lake side).

 CN Train Trestle, West (bay side).

 Provincial Park Dock (in Moon light Bay).

Back to Top of Table

NOTES

ANCHOR - In the case of a club dock the coordinates are 20 meters from the dock in approx 3 meters deep water.  In the case of dual AOSA moorings the coordinates are between the 2 mooring balls. Use caution at night when transiting between a mooring ball and shore. 

NAV AID - These coordinates are centered at the entrance of a passage to guide you in or out.  Keep to the center and be cautious of possible hazards on either side as you transit through. This is especially true of the Wabum Marina channel, Wabamun Town dock,  and the Wabamun and Sundance power plant canals. 

• Wabum Marina Channel - To enter the marina and stay inside the dredged channel, point to the white tank on the gas dock, keeping it centered between the 2 outward channel markers. 

• Wabamun Town Dock - To approach the town dock point to the center of the ramp, keeping parallel to the long dock.  DO NOT cross the end of the dock within 200M of the end.  It is shallow and there are obstructions.

• Wabamun Channel - point to the center of the channel, keeping parallel to the banks.

• Sundance Channel - point to the center of the channel, keeping parallel to the banks.
  

VISUAL AIDS (Communication Tower) - Land marks are the traditional means of positioning yourself on the water.  Illuminated communication towers marked with clearance lights make excellent landmarks for night time navigation.  Marker lights are permanently on and beacon lights flash to get the pilot's attention for collision avoidance. 

HAZARD - These coordinates are set approx 10 meters away in deep water to keep you away. Do not transit between a hazard and shore. A hazard way point or a cardinal buoy is NOT to be used as a rounding mark on a race course! 

CAUTION - Sometimes the coordinates on a GPS receiver may show a large variance of up to a 1500M.  I've discovered this around the CN trestle.  This anomaly is due to multi-path reception caused locally by a combination of the metal rails and/or the overhead power lines.  A consumer GPS receiver gives no indication that its coordinates are 1500M off.  The aircraft version does.  Move away from the are and power cycle your receiver to restore to the correct coordinates.  This is one of those times when a chart can be used to confirm your coordinates.  The channel transit arrows painted on the trestle are luminescent for night time use. 

DEPTH - Shown in decimal feet. Readings taken in spring 2003 when lake level was 724 meters above sea level. Click here to check current lake level.  

CARDINAL BUOY FLASH CODES - 
1 - Coal Point: South Cardinal Buoy, WQ(6) + LFL 15s
2 - Rosewood Bay: North Cardinal Buoy, WQ
3 - Armstrong: North Cardinal Buoy, WQ
4 - Iron Head: West Cardinal Buoy, WQ(9) 15s

An East Cardinal Buoy Flash Code is WQ(3) 10s

How to decode the flash pattern:
The first letter is the colour of the lantern (W-hite, R-ed, G-reen, Y-ellow)
The second letter is the cadence (Q-uick = once per second, VQ = 1.5 per second)
In brackets is the number of flashes per group (9)
LFL = Long flash of 2 seconds
Last is the period of one complete cycle in seconds.

So the flash patterns are:

• North Cardinal Buoy Lantern is: White, Quick flashing once per second.

• South Cardinal Buoy Lantern is: White, 6 Quick flashes + one 2 second flash in 15 seconds.

• East Cardinal Buoy Lantern is:   White, 3 Quick Flashes in 10 seconds.

• West Cardinal Buoy Lantern is:  White, 9 Quick Flashes in 15 seconds.

NOTE 1 - A Cardinal buoy will be used on the water to denote dangerous shallow water. Standard international markings are used.  The safe passage for a South buoy is to the south and to the North for a North buoy, etc. 

NOTE 2 - DO NOT confuse a cardinal buoy with a hazard buoy. A cardinal buoy has safe water to one or several sides and is used to mark the end of reef.  A hazard buoy has safe water all around and is used to mark a sunken vessel or other object. A vessel can navigate around a hazard buoy but not around a cardinal buoy.

COMPASS ROSE WAYPOINT - This is a standard navigation technique used in coastal piloting for plotting your position on a chart from a known reference when navigating by GPS. It's a great way to confirm that all electronic devises work. Go ahead, make a believer of yourself!

• Precisely determine the lat. and long. coordinates of the exact centre of the compass rose on the chart and enter it as a waypoint in your GPS. (use the way point listed in the table above).

• Press the GO TO button, or similar feature, on your GPS. Select the compass rose waypoint. 

• The GPS will display the bearing to and the distance from the centre of the compass rose. 

• Using the reciprocal of the above bearing, the opposite side of the compass rose, draw a line from the bearing through the centre of the compass rose, extending the line past your approximate position. 

• Using the distance indicated on the GPS, measure from the centre of the compass rose along the line you drew. (Use the scale on the east or west side of the map to measure the distance with a divider). 

• Setting one pointer on the center of the compass rose, transfer the distance along the line and draw a point. The point was your location when you took the reading. If you continue doing this while you are moving, you can join the points to create a line that you have traveled over the water. 
  

GPS RECEIVER SETUP - ddd/mm/ss, 3D and NAD27 Canada (most accurate to match a printed Canadian chart).  The coordinates were taken with a Magellan and confirmed with a Garmin GPS receiver (e/w position averaging) when the GPS selective availability was switched off.  The best accuracy a consumer receiver without position averaging can measure is 15 meters. 

How to Create a New Waypoint - Simply depress the MARK key (or similar) on your GPS receiver to create a waypoint @ your present location. Then edit the coordinates of your waypoint with those shown in this table. Finally rename the way point name to a meaningful word. A word is easier to understand than a number. 

NOTE: In the future I hope to create a set of waypoints on this web site that you can download to your PC. Most GPS receivers can communicate with a PC via a serial or USB port. This is the same data port that is used to communicate with other navigation instruments using NMEA protocol. Buy this cord before it is manufacture discontinued! Buy the cord that includes the cigarette lighter plug to operate the receiver from 12 VDC power for long term use. 

"REEF" - The tight contour lines along the south shore of Wabamun Lake, from about the middle of Rosewood Bay to Armstrong Gravel Point, are to be avoided due to a line of large rocks close to the surface. If you must cross the "reef" be particularly cautious as there are large rocks waiting to take a bite out of your keel. The water depth over the reef varies quit a bit and a safe crossing is dependent on the lake level. So check the lake level chart.  "The 'reef' is actually a glacial moraine. It is NOT man made. It happens to be under water and comes courteous to us from the last ice age!".  Richard Fielden.  The 'reef' was last charted on 2003-07-18 by Roy Fisher in a Zodiac e/w a tracking depth sounder. The contour lines do a good job of marking the rocks on the map and eliminates clutter. The following are some of Roy's observations. 
Description - I hesitated to classify the southern obstruction as a reef since it is not an elevation separated from the shore as one would expect from the stories we've heard. Rather, it is a shelf with a shallow passage between it and the shore. The shelf is composed of "large rocks" and has a very hard bottom that presents a good echo with absolutely zero ground penetration. This contrasts with most of the lake that pings with a double layer echo showing silt over a harder bottom. 
Safe Passage? - It may be possible to transit along the shore side of this reef in about 6' of water but it is definitely recommended to use a depth sounder. When sounding southbound across the reef, I noticed that it rises very quickly and continues shallow to shore. I found no area of safe passage between the edge of the reef shelf and the South shore. Areas of 6' to 10' depths are interspersed with large boulders and steep gravel mounds with clearances ranging from 2' to 3'. Those who sail between the shore and the South boundary of the reef do so at a risk not commensurate with the rewards of finding favourable shore breezes. I found it scary in the Zodiac, never mind a sailboat equipped with a deep keel. Waters in front of the cottages e/w docks are not safe for sailing either. Depths range from 2.5' to 4' with abundant weed beds. 
Visual reference - A visual reference does exist for the reef. Not surprisingly, the bulk of the reef extends North of the huge gravel pile on the South shore (Armstrong Gravel), located West of the Sundance Power Plant. It is quite a bit longer than said gravel pile however. It has sufficient water over it, east of Armstrong Gravel, providing safe passage on either side of Sundance Power plant. However, it actually extends to the rocky lake shore, east of the Sundance Power Plant. Here it would be correct to call it a reef. Be very cautious at the eastern shore as the reef comes to just under the surface well away from shore. This spot is marked on the AOSA Wabamun chart. 

MANAGE YOUR GPS RECEIVER

If you neglected to buy the data/power cable for your GPS, I encourage you to do so ASAP.  Many are manufacturer discontinued and this cable is the only way that your GPS can be interfaced to a PC, Autohelm, plotter, etc.   It is far less time consuming and strain on your fingers to manage your waypoints on a PC and then upload them to the GPS receiver than enter them one by one using the GPS keys.  Buy the cable that includes the cigarette lighter so you can power it for an extended time.  Many cords include a regulator in the plug to protect the receiver from voltage transients.

• If you don't have the manufacturer's application to manage your GPS receiver an excellent free version is available from EasyGPS that works with Magellan, Garmin, Lowrance, Eagle, MLR, Brunton & Silva. 

• If you use EasyGPS I've compiled the major waypoints in a downloadable file.   All you have to do is download the file to your hard drive then upload it to your GPS using easyGPS.
  (PS: The download function is currently NOT working.  If you would like a copy then email me).

Back to Top of Table